


Threats

by Kimiko93



Category: Naruto
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Girl Friendship, Humor, Minor Canonical Character(s), Minor Character Death, More Romances on the side, POV Alternating, Sakura Centric, Slow Build, Team Bonding
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-04-28
Updated: 2016-04-27
Packaged: 2018-01-21 04:07:53
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 21
Words: 158,525
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1536941
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimiko93/pseuds/Kimiko93
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When a large-scale military operation against Oto reunites Team 7 sooner than expected, it was what Sakura always thought she'd wanted the most. However, working together as a team again after being apart for so long proves to be more challenging than expected, since Sasuke wasn't exactly on board with being 'rescued' in the first place, and they're just not the same people anymore. Nevertheless, they somehow have to put their differences aside, since Orochimaru definitely wasn't the only threat around...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Drumming Song

**Author's Note:**

> General OOC Warning: Everyone is smarter and snarkier than their original counterparts. If that's a deal-breaker, turn around now. If it isn't, enjoy!

 

It started with drums.

She felt the vibrations shaking her before she even heard a sound.

Shaking her to her very core, her heart aligning to the rhythm resounding from all around here, filling her room, filling the streets, filling the entire village.

They were beating the drums in the ancient chorus, calling for blood and gore and justice and victory, or whatever else you needed to get a whole village ready for war.

 It was the first time during her lifetime that Sakura ever heard it. It was a sound she wouldn't soon forget.

Despite her awareness of the purpose of drums beating in a hidden village, there was something oddly soothing to the sound. Something familiar. Something telling her she belonged here, despite how foreboding it all was.

 Hurried steps now mingled with the even drumming sound, coming from the hallway leading to her door. Only when her mother entered her room did Sakura actually sit up in her bed.

 "Sakura, sweetie?" Her mother sounded worried. She had heard the drums before. "What's going on?"

 "I don't know," Sakura replied, getting out of bed and rushing over to her wardrobe to retrieve clothing and weapons. "But mom, promise me not to leave the house until we know what's happening, okay?"

 "Alright," her mother agreed, watching her getting dressed in a hurry. "Where are you going?"

 "Tsunade-sama's office," Sakura answered, pulling on the gloves Tsunade had gotten her for passing her last medic ninja exam. "They'll be handing out assignments there that might explain the drumming, and if not, Tsunade-sama will at least have an explanation." Or at least that's what they'd been taught about standard protocol in case of drums back in the academy.

 "Will there be a war?" Her mother glanced out the door to the small balcony, old worry lines clearly visible in her face. Sakura shrugged.

 "It's what the drums are for, as far as I know," she explained. "But if we're the ones drumming, that probably means we're on the offensive. So you should be relatively save here." She double-checked her supply bag. "But still, don't leave the house until you get official notice, you hear me?"

 "Yes, I heard you," her mother assured her and pulled her into a tight hug when she turned to leave. "But you be careful out there as well, understood?"

 "Of course," Sakura mumbled into her mom's shoulder before turning away and leaving her room through the balcony door, the cold and misty morning air intensifying the chill in her that the ever-present drums had caused.

 

* * *

 

The dark and foggy streets of Konoha were completely empty. Which was to be expected - streets were for civilians. The rooftops however were quite busy, with every shinobi who remembered the drumming protocol using them as a shortcut to reach the command center. Not even the occasional complaint about the noise a person walking across your roof made was an issue right now. It might have been 4 AM, but the drums left nobody asleep.

Sakura had already climbed the railing of her balcony to reach the rooftop of her house to join the crowds hurrying towards the Hokage's office, when a familiar voice startled her.

 "No need to hurry, Sakura-chan. They want us last."

Turning around, she saw Naruto, sitting on the roof of a neighboring house, the long strands of his apparently new forehead protector blowing in the wind, aloof grin in place. He even had the moon at his back, for maximized epicness, which still did nothing to make his bright orange jumpsuit any less recognizable, even at night.

 "You're back!" Sakura shrieked in delight, glad to have at least something familiar to soothe the dread the drums had caused her. "...Did you practice that entrance?"

 Naruto laughed his signature whole-hearted laugh that stretched across his entire face and body and would have been contagious if it weren't for the steady rhythm of impending doom in the background.

 "Nah, I'm just awesome that way," he assured her, looking about as giddy as she felt about seeing him again. It had been almost a year and a half since he'd left to go training with Jiraiya-sama, and he'd grown about half a foot since then, she realized, as Naruto crossed the distance between their rooftops in one fell swoop and pulled her into a hug so tight it made her bones groan. "I missed you!"

 "I missed you, too," she replied, fighting for air and patting his back soothingly. "We didn't expect you back so soon."

 "Soon?" He asked incredulously and let her go. "It's been like forever since I left, and you call this soon?"

 "Well, Tsunade-sama told me not to expect you back this year." Sakura shrugged. "Or even next year, so that's all I had to go by."

 "Ooh, you've been spending time with Baa-chan?" Naruto beamed at her. "How is she doing these days?"

 "Busy, I guess," she replied, nodding towards the direction of both the Hokage's office and the unrelenting drumming sounds. "And I've been actually training under her while you were gone."

 "Eeek!" Naruto shrieked and jumped away from her a little. "Does that mean you're all scary and destructive now?"

 "You'll see." Sakura smiled sheepishly, before turning somber again. "So, is your return related to whatever is going on here at all? And what do you mean they want us last?"

 "Well..." Naruto scratched his head and looked towards the command center as well. "So, the pervert has been doing some sort of... Research while we travelled, I guess. Gathering intelligence, he called it, and it didn't even involve women or bath houses, so I guess it might be something useful. So a few days ago, he got back from doing some sort of scouting thing, don't ask me, I don't question this anymore, and said we had to get back here asap, no questions allowed, and so we've kind of been running all the time. Then we got here about an hour ago, I guess, and he even woke up Baa-chan, have you ever seen her at 3 in the morning? Not a pretty sight. Anyways, so he woke her up, we somehow lived to tell the tale, and then they'd had some secret discussion, sent me to get you for later, and then this drumming business started."

 "I... see," Sakura said, trying her best to comprehend the rapid succession of information he'd just given her. "So you don't actually know what this is about?"

 "Nope!" Naruto admitted freely. "Just that they think we're important for this, or something."

 "But you do know these drums usually mean war, right?" She gestured towards the dwindling stream of Shinobi still rushing to the Hokage's office all around them.

 "So that's why everyone's freaking out!" Naruto slapped his forehead protector, and then shook his hand in dismay because it hurt. Sakura couldn't help it, she had to laugh. Again. Despite it all. It was just so good to see Naruto again. She hadn't even realized how much she'd missed him until now.

 "Pretty much," she agreed. "So did they say for how much later they wanted us?" The first shinobi were already returning. Their administration was nothing if not efficient. At least in times like these they were. Maybe they should consider making Tsunade do her paper work at 4 in the morning more often.

 "Ah, huh." Naruto followed her gaze. "I don't know, they didn't mention a specific time or anything..."

 "So we should probably get going before we miss something important, right?" Sakura suggested, smiling.

 "Right!" Naruto positively beamed at her before he leapt away. "Race you to Baa-chan!"

 Rolling her eyes and sighing didn't keep her smile from staying in its place while she followed him.

 

* * *

 

Sakura lost the race.

Not that it surprised her; she'd never been one for speed and Naruto was pretty much the epitome of endurance. So he could just go all out in a friendly race at 4 AM before going to war and still be fresh as a daisy, while she had to regulate her speed somewhat. Or maybe he just didn't think that far ahead. Same difference, really.

 There were desks put up in front of the command center, where different high-rank government officials were handing out scrolls to the shinobi that arrived there. The drumming sounds were coming from the balcony above, where Sakura spotted several retired shinobi she knew from council session. While no longer taking missions, these people usually had an advisory or administrative position. It made sense for them to go on drumming duty; they wouldn't need to save their strength for the upcoming fights and were old enough to remember the rhythm quite intimately.

 Upon spotting their arrival, Shizune, who was handing out scrolls to the medics that had shown up, immediately waved them through into the building. So apparently, they really were quite important, as Naruto had said. The all-around somber mood seemed to have gotten to him after all; he was no longer beaming happily at everything and everyone the further they got into the building. The command center was positively bustling with activity, and nobody they encountered seemed too happy about it. Or about seeing them. In fact, some people they met actively glared at them, Naruto in particular.

 "What's their problem?" Naruto asked her with a hushed voice after a whole group of people had just thrown nasty glances at them when they'd let them pass first. "They act like we're responsible for this war thing you were talking about!"

 "I don't... know..." Though while she was still forming those words, it suddenly occurred to Sakura that maybe she did know. This was a grand scale operation. So grand that apparently the entire village was needed to prepare for it, hence the war drums. Tsunade had requested Naruto's and her presence specifically. People were looking at the two of them like they were the cause of the problem.

 Wait a minute.

 "Naruto... You don't think..." Sakura tried to keep her voice calm. "I mean... All of this... Could this maybe have... Something to do with... Sasuke-kun?"

 Next to her, Naruto stopped dead in his tracks. He gaped at her, eyes wide, mouth wider.

 "That... That would make sense, somehow, wouldn't it?" He seemed completely lost in thought for a moment, then bolted away faster than she could see, further up the stairs. Sakura only caught up with him when he had already reached the door to Tsunade's office, which he unceremoniously threw open without bothering to knock.

 "Are we getting Sasuke back?" He loudly asked into the room before marching in. Sakura entered behind him, closing the door as silently as possible.

 "Oh, there you are."

 Tsunade was not in a good mood. Unlike Jiraiya next to her, and the two other people currently in her office, Nara Shikaku and Yamanaka Inoichi, she wasn't visibly tired, due to the genjutsu she used to keep up appearances, but she had that pissed off look in her eyes which she always got when she'd been woken too early (too early being before sleeping off her hangover) and had only paper work to look forward to. With a nod, she dismissed the two men, who left not without sharing a concerned look that Sakura caught when moving away from the door.

 "So are we?" Naruto had proceeded to the desk where he stared down at Tsunade intently, who glared back at him.

 "We really need to work on your respect and obedience," she snarled. "Be glad I like you, or I would just leave you home."

 "But you can't get Sasuke back without me!" Naruto insisted. Tsunade rolled her eyes.

 "I didn't say that's what we're actually going to do," she pointed out. "If you haven't noticed, this is kind of a big thing that's happening right now. Involving the entire village, drums, and starting at 4 AM. Do you really think I'd make that much fuss just to get your boyfriend back?"

 That made Naruto choke and kept him busy coughing for a minute or so, before he finally managed an indignant "WHAT?!" which was swiftly ignored.

 "Yeah, I didn't think so," Tsunade continued as if nothing had happened. "Though I will admit, that getting the Uchiha boy back _is_ part of what we're doing. More specifically, your part." Her glare almost silenced Naruto's triumphant cry.

 "Our part in what?" Sakura asked, looking around uncomfortably. "What exactly is going on?"

 Tsunade sighed. Deeply.

 "Well, remember Orochimaru's parade of freaks?" She asked somberly.

 "They were kinda hard to miss, yeah," Naruto answered. "And pretty obvious about being freaks, too."

 "Exactly," Tsunade continued. "Turns out he's got a whole village of those. Well, in numbers, at least. He keeps them split up between four different bases that we know of. We don't really know what he's planning with all those shinobi, but the fact that he has them is troubling enough. He's also used his strength to attack us and there have been incidents recently where Oto nins attacked Konoha teams within our own borders. So while it appears as if he's not planning any more major attacks on us for the moment, there's no way to be sure he isn't planning something against us."

 "So we're gonna strike first," Sakura concluded.

 "Yes," Tsunade confirmed. "We're getting ready to besiege all of Orochimaru's hide-outs, as long as he resides in the one closest to us. Our numbers will suffice, with a little aid from Suna. Thank the gods you get along with the new Kazekage so well."

 "...We do?" Naruto asked, clearly not quite up to date on recent events.

 "Well, I heard you kicked his ass when they attacked us," Tsunade explained, shrugging. "And since then he holds you in high regard. Same difference, really."

 "Wait, wait, wait!" Naruto demanded, slowly catching up. " _Gaara_ is Kazekage now? But... But, but... He's my age!"

 "He sure is." Tsunade grinned sheepishly. "And it's still me sitting on this chair. Weak performance on your part, wouldn't you agree?"

 "And what are we supposed to do about Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, before this could result in any kind of argument.

 "Catch," Tsunade demanded and threw a scroll at her. "The two of you basically get a secret S-rank mission to sneak in once we get to the hide-out and drag the Uchiha boy out there kicking and screaming if need be."

 "So we're bringing Sasuke back and you're paying us for it?" Naruto asked. "Awesome!"

 "Well, not really," Tsunade relented. "It's not going to be easy, we don't exactly know where the boy is hiding, just that Orochimaru keeps him close, or how cooperative he's gonna be. But don't get me wrong, we _need_ him back. It's insulting enough he got taken from us in the first place."

 "He... Wasn't exactly taken..." Sakura brought up quietly, biting her lips. Not her favorite memory there.

 "I know, that's what makes it worse," Tsunade continued. "I don't know yet what the village has done to him to make him voluntarily leave us for a freak who wants nothing more than take over his body, but it's gotta be pretty bad. And if word of that spread, that would paint Konoha in a bad light. Not to mention that the boy is kind of a national treasure, last of the Uchiha not in a bingo book yet, Sharingan and all that jazz. So getting him back is kind of a big deal."

 "Yeah, you don't need to tell us that," Naruto pointed out. "It's what we've been training for the last year, right?"

 "...Right," Sakura agreed reluctantly under the strict gaze of her master. Tsunade's mouth thinned at that and she didn't seem too pleased with her answer. And truth be told, of course 'just' getting Sasuke back hadn't been the only thing she'd trained for. Sasuke’s part in her motivation had been a frequent point of contention between them, as Tsunade refused to train a lovesick child who just wanted to get her crush back. So she’d constantly had to prove that she had less shallow motivations as well. Such as finally being useful and able to contribute to the team or just plain not being almost completely helpless anymore. But she couldn't bring herself to break Naruto's enthusiasm, and it was at least part of the truth, anyways. So no harm done. Probably.

 Tsunade sighed again.

 "Yeah, well, you see... It's because of that that we can't afford not getting him back," she continued. "So that's the, ah, other part of your mission. I don't want it to come to this, and I'd really prefer just getting him back here and cooperating, but if that's not possible..."

 Sakura had to keep from shuddering at that implication. Surely, Tsunade couldn't mean what Sakura thought she meant... Right? And if she did, wasn't it incredibly stupid to entrust, of all people they were currently rallying, Naruto and her with that mission, the two people in the village the least likely to obey when it came to that?

 "You... You want us to _kill_ him if he doesn't come willingly?!" Naruto all but yelled. "Hell no, we won't do that!"

 "Ideally, you won't have to," Tsunade snarled, eyes gleaming dangerously. "And you're only supposed to do it if he doesn't come _at all_ , got it?"

 "No!" Naruto protested. "I'm not doing a mission that could include me killing Sasuke! And neither will Sakura-chan! Right?!"

 "Right," Sakura agreed as firmly as she could under the circumstances. It was her Sasuke-kun they were talking about here, after all... And it was her master giving them a look of severe disappointment. And annoyance.

 "You are still _shinobi_ whose first and foremost obligation is to this village," Tsunade spat at them. "Remember that bit about personal feelings not getting in the way? We didn't teach you that for fun. Well, the way you're acting right now, it seems like we didn't teach you that at all, but no matter. So will you take the mission, or do I have to assign it to someone else who will be more _cooperative_?"

 Oh. So this was where this was going, Sakura realized. She took a deep breath, stored the mission scroll Tsunade had thrown at her in her pouch, and touched Naruto's wrist soothingly.

 "We're taking it," she than assured her master, squeezing Naruto hard when he opened his mouth to protest and glaring at him for effect.

 "Good for you." Tsunade seemed grimly pleased with her. "Now leave. You'll find your temporary assignments in the scroll, we'll contact you once your little extra mission starts. Dismissed."

 

* * *

 

"Are you insane?!" Naruto yelled at her as soon as they had left the office and were sort of out of earshot. "How can you agree to this? They want us to kill Sasuke! How can you?!"

 "Calm down," Sakura hissed at him, dragging him further down the corridor by the wrist until she'd found her destination. It was a small, dusty room full of old mission reports and other documents which would muffle most of their conversation and ensure them a minimum of privacy.

 "Calm down? How am I supposed to calm down?" Naruto broke free from her grip and stared her down furiously. "You just agreed to kill Sasuke! Didn't you listen?"

 "I did," she assured him. "Better than you, it seems." She brushed through her hair nervously, for the first time feeling it was only 4 AM and that she missed out on a few hours of sleep. "Now, listen to me. Tsunade-sama does not want to see Sasuke-kun dead. If she did, she wouldn't have assigned this to the two of us in the first place, okay?"

 "But she said -," Naruto tried to interrupt her, but Sakura would have none of it. Not right now.

 "She said we'll have to kill Sasuke-kun, if there is no other way of getting him back," she paraphrased. "Sure. That's what she had to say. But don't you realize how much freedom this actually gives us?"

 "...No?" Naruto was still not convinced.

 "Well, first of all, if we manage to kill him, we can manage to not quite kill him and take him with us after all," she pointed out. "Also, if we don't do that, try proving that we didn't kill him. Maybe his body caught on fire and we couldn't bring is corpse. Or he fell down into some abyss, or whatever else we can come up with. Bottom line, we can still choose to let him go and not kill him if there's no other way, and won't suffer any consequences as long as he stays out of the village's business. And we _had_ to agree to do this ourselves, because otherwise, she would have given the mission to someone else who probably would be a lot less creative in carrying it out."

 "Huh." Naruto seemed to have calmed down and now regarded her with something between curiosity and astonishment. But at least he was listening now without looking like he wanted her head chopped off.

 "Or we can just say he beat the crap out of us, woe is us, so sorry, won't happen again," Sakura pointed out with a slight smile. As if Naruto would agree to do that.

 "Never!" He protested almost immediately. Sakura laughed slightly.

 "Okay, then we'll come up with something better if we have to," she calmed him down. "And that's a big if." She opened the assignment scroll and scanned the instructions. "Says here we are to sneak into the underground hide-out in a few days and find him there. According to our scouts, the one they're at right now has only three exits, and they all will be highly guarded, so there won't be any way for Sasuke-kun or anyone else to flee unnoticed. We just don't know how many people are down there, so there might be some resistance, but oh well, never expected this to be easy."

 "Right." Naruto smiled back, this time not his all-consuming beaming smile he showed the whole world, but a more somber, slightly sad and incredibly vulnerable smile that almost broke her heart. "So I guess we're doing this together, huh?"

 "Seems like it." Sakura had to force a smile, even though the look on Naruto's face made her feel more like crying. "The way it should be."

 "I guess..." Naruto still didn't seem too happy about that. "I just... Wanted to keep my promise, you know? To bring him back _for_ you."

 "I'm not holding you to that," Sakura said, uncomfortably shifting her weight from one foot to the other, avoiding looking at him anymore. "We're doing this now, one way or the other." She scanned through the scroll again for additional information. "Oh, great. You got assigned Combat Unit C until our special mission starts, and I get the healing tents. Seems like you're getting all the fun," she joked half-heartedly.

 "You can heal now?" Naruto asked, his sudden state of melancholy gone as fast as it had come.

 "I trained under Tsunade for over a year," Sakura reminded him.

 "Yeah, like, smashing walls and the ground and stuff, I thought," Naruto explains. "That suits you, but now you can heal, too?"

 "Uhm, yes?" Sakura frowned. Usually people told her how much better healing suited her than fighting. And truth be told, mending bones came a lot easier to her than breaking them, but in most if not all combat situations, that was not what she wanted to do. Sure, it was amazing to watch flesh growing back together seamlessly under her hands, but after spending the beginning days of her ninja career in a nurturing position by default, tearing the flesh open in the first place felt so much more satisfying.  
On the other hand, in their profession, nobody would ever give her any medals for being able to cause much harm. That was nothing special, more like a minimum requirement. Sure, Tsunade was widely known for her combat prowess. So was every other ninja who made it into his or her fifties. What set her apart were her incredible healing skills, which had always been criminally undervalued by just about every hidden village there was. So Sakura saw more of a future for herself in that department, on the long term. For the short term however, she was quite content tearing stuff apart.

 "So, are you any good at it?" Naruto asked her teasingly.

 "I am," she answered, a dangerous edge in her voice. "I'm also very adept at punching holes in the ground, so wipe that smirk right off your face."

 Naruto threw a glance at the ceiling-high shelves, overstuffed with records and reports and all kinds of documents.

 "Punching me here will hurt you more than me," he pointed out. "If I know anything about Baa-chan, then it's that if she's teaching you, she's also making you take care of her paper work. That means you stacked some of this stuff. That means she'll have you put it back when you mess it up."

 "She'd make you help me," Sakura mused. "And then I could just let you do all the work."

 "Yeah, but I have no idea how this stuff works and you do and you have no patience," Naruto countered. "Especially not with me."

 "You make a compelling argument," Sakura acknowledged, nodding grimly. "Also, we need to get going. The drums have stopped; I think we're moving out soon."

 "Right." Naruto turned serious as well. "There's like a war going on here."

 "So I've heard." Sakura read through the mission scroll another time. "You better go find combat unit C."

 "And you need to find the healing tents." Naruto hugged her again. "This is so weird..."

 

* * *

 

 From the first beat on, Tenten's house had been overflowing. Overflowing with tears.

 Silent tears, of course, they were shinobi and doing their duty and crying out loud would help nobody. But still. When the drums had started going off, her mother had started to treat all of them like dead people.

 And statistically, they were.

 In places like Konoha, there were two kinds of ninja. The ones with careers, and the ones in the system. Your career usually started with your parents. If one of them had a career, you might just get one. If both of them had one, you were a shoe-in, unless someone with more famous parentage needed your place on a Genin team. Then chances were you'd get thrown into the system.

 The system started after you graduated the academy but failed to impress your Jounin teacher. Or to have someone with a significant last name on your team. That usually pulled you through, no matter how weakly you performed. She might know that from experience; the jury was still out on that.

 System ninjas were proper ninjas. They might even get ranks like Genin or Chuunin, they just didn't really take official exams for it. Those were for show. System ninjas were not. They were remarkably unimpressive and unrecognizable. At least the ones that stayed alive for a while.

 Usually, they'd be trained in big groups to perform the dirtiest work, and either the most unspectacular missions that paid so badly you might be better off as a waiter, or the most dangerous missions, where they were essentially cannon fodder. The small print on the memorial stone.

 Tenten's family had no last name for a reason. From what she knew, they were pretty big, with all the cousins and second and third cousins she and her five siblings shared a house with, and that wasn't counting the people who had moved out or were even more distantly related.

 Right now, there were only four career ninjas in the whole family. One of them would retire soon, having lived to the ripe old age of thirty-six.

 Of course, the no last name thing wasn't the rule; there were plenty of system ninjas with a last name. Those names just didn't come with significant abilities like super power eyes or mind control tricks or your own bunch of animal companions. The lucky ones had a family familiar enough with the system to be adept at some kind of ninja art.

 Her family always told Tenten how lucky she had been.

 For one thing, and this was the most obvious one, with her team assignment. She would not have made a Genin team if someone hadn't paired her up with a Hyuuga of all people. And a personal favorite of the man who'd conveniently been assigned as their Jounin instructor.

 Tenten however was quite sure that luck didn't have that much to do with it. While Lee's chances had been even worse than hers, no chakra and no family to back up anything, Gai-sensei probably would have taken him as a student even if their team hadn't made it. Neji had confided that his family, especially at the time, would have been a lot happier had he just been thrown into the system, like any good branch member should. Some even went as far as to claim that the branch family of the Hyuugas had been the first system ninjas around, long before there had been hidden villages.

 Oh no. What pulled them through was Neji's status as a prodigy, even for a Hyuuga, and her significant talent with weapons. A talent she had acquired by hounding every half-way talented ninja in her family for instruction ever since she'd understood how the village worked. Jutsus and the talent to use them were determined by blood. Weapons were universal.

 And so here she was, sitting in the large kitchen of the house, surrounded by siblings and cousins and aunts and uncles and her parents, and everyone was preemptively mourning everyone. Currently, they were expecting back her oldest brother, the only one she had left out of three, who had gone to the Hokage's office to get their assignments for whatever war they were headed to. Because drums meant war. And war meant casualties. And most casualties occurred for the system ninjas.

 Now, granted, things had started looking less bleak ever since Tsunade-sama had returned. Under her rule, the system got two-tiered, and those who showed promise when it came to chakra control and the like received medical training. Nothing that would lead them to greatness, but combat medics died less than system ninjas. Especially during wars. Or maybe the statistics were a little off since combat medics had been rare the last few years.

 So statistically, Tenten, her younger brother Penghe, her older sister Xinlu and her cousin Yaohuan were a little less dead than everybody else.

 Over the years, she had learned to distance herself from the constant death in her family. Or business in general. She was doing her part to prevent her untimely demise and trained her younger siblings and cousins so they might have a shot at escaping the system, but that was all she could do, and she had accepted that.

 That didn't make sitting in that kitchen any easier.

 It took until about half past 6 for her brother Singnan to return, his face looking grim, but at least not like he was about to read out a eulogy, even though their combat assignments were pretty much just that. The three medics they had gotten the medical tents, obviously. Everyone else got assigned combat units three, four and Singnan himself even unit two. The lower the numbers, the higher the casualties usually were.

 "So what about me?" She asked once her brother was finished. "Am I staying home?"

 "I don't know," Singnan replied. "You're not on my scroll, at least. So maybe."

 She tried to ignore the dirty looks some of her cousins threw her. Being the only career ninja in the house and only one of four in the entire family hadn't exactly made her popular. She was used to that."Then you can help me with preparing some food and taking care of the house," her pregnant and thus off-duty cousin Mei suggested. "We sure won't be enough around here anyways, so that's good!"

 "I thought you were too important to stay home," her young cousin Zhongwen said accusingly. He wasn't even out of the academy yet.

 "Whatever, let's get going!" Singnan gestured for them all to get ready. Usually their father was the head of the family, but he was currently hospitalized. Lucky for him, all things considered.

Tenten got up with the rest of them and helped handing out the food they actually already had prepared while waiting for Singnan to return. Technically, the state provided food on missions, and so far this had been handled as one, but supplies also had a tendency to run out before reaching the system ninjas, so they had learned not to rely on that. Even though this had improved under Tsunade as well.

 It wasn't until the people assigned to combat unit four had left that Neji showed up at their door. His presence always made most of her family (predominantly the female half) close to falling to the ground and worshipping him - not only did he have a last name, but a damn famous one at that. Hyuuga family politics weren't important in their household.

 Today however, some of her younger cousins merely shot him dirty looks, as he sure as hell wasn't assigned a numbered combat unit, so Tenten rushed forward to meet him.

 "What are you doing here?" She said instead of a greeting.

 "I figured you wouldn't get the message," he replied and handed her a scroll. She took and screened its contents. Combat Unit C. Letters meant importance. And increased survival rates; not exactly because their tasks were less dangerous, but because they were specialized and the people in them were career ninjas who knew what they were doing. Most of the time.

 "Team assignment?" She asked after realizing that. Neji nodded. She cracked a smile. "So what did your part of the family get?"

 "One or two," he answered grimly. "Some of them even letters, or so I've heard. Hinata-sama is with us, unsurprisingly."

 "Singnan got two," Tenten told him. "Everyone else three or four. My, my, aren't we moving up in the world?"

 "We need to get going," Neji said instead of showing amusement at her joke. "Gai-sensei and Lee are waiting for us."

 "Joy of joys," she sighed and went back to inform her family that she was too important to stay home after all. And statistically a lot less dead than anyone they knew.

 

 


	2. Into The Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The siege of Oto starts; Sakura is on healing duty and feeling restless, Tenten is on fighting duty and could really use some rest, and Ino is running numbers for the higher-ups.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sooo, as promised, the second chapter after about 2 weeks. I still got a bit of a buffer going on, so it might just work out! Thank you for the kudos and all that <3   
> Just a general warning; the fighting scenes are... Detailed. Keep that in mind. The M-Rating isn't up there for decoration, I actually considered making it an E more than once, and I still might... Depending on reactions and how the sexy stuff about 20 chapters from here will play out :D Enjoy!

Tenten couldn’t sleep.

And small wonder; she was lying in a tent compartment of Combat Unit C. Next to her lay Neji. And around her, the air was filled with moaning, groaning and gasping, accompanied with the occasional wet slapping sound of genitals meeting, and the heavy smell a lot of sweaty bodies and the other resulting fluids produced.

After having done so for more than two years, she wouldn’t have thought sharing a tent compartment with Neji could ever be uncomfortable.

But it was. The silence between them felt _very_ uncomfortable. And she knew he wasn’t just silent because he was asleep, no; if the sounds (and smells. And general discomfort.) kept her awake, they were doing the same for him. His senses were sharper than hers, after all. And in their profession, wearing earplugs was a synonym for suicide.

She sighed.

“You’d think they’d have learned to be quieter,” she attempted to break the silence. “Being ninjas and all.”

Neji next to her snorted.

“The individual volume is quite low,” he replied dryly. “It’s the amount of people… Copulating that causes so much noise.”

That made her chuckle.

“If anything, I’d have thought they’d prefer to go into battle well-rested,” he continued. “If this goes on for much longer, nobody here will get any sleep.”

“Ah, well.” She stifled a yawn. “The testosterone release is supposed to improve battle skills, though. Makes you more competitive and fiercer, or something. So it probably evens out.”

“Is that so,” he said disdainfully. “I for one would prefer to go to battle with a clear head, well rested and without additional hormonal influences.”

“And that’s why we’re here and having this conversation instead of participating,” she noted, suppressing a chuckle. “Though I don’t think many people share your views on this.”

“Evidently not,” he scoffed as he was half drowned out by a particularly loud moan from somewhere.

“Well, other people get drunk before and during their battles,” Tenten continued and rolled over on her stomach.

“That’s even more counterproductive,” Neji protested. Tenten shrugged.

“Apparently makes you more fearless, or something,” she explained.

“And disoriented,” he countered. “And irrational. And hung-over.”

“Yes, it doesn’t really work with our style of fighting,” she admitted. “But the people we get our weapons from apparently do that.”

“Idiots,” Neji sneered.

“Would also be louder,” Tenten pondered. “And ew, the smell would be worse.”

“So we should count our blessings?” Neji concluded, not sounding convinced at all. She chuckled again.

“Looks like it, really,” she said and yawned again. “I just hope our bunch here gets tired soon.”

* * *

Sakura missed how their forces reached the Oto base they were assigned to. She missed how they lined up. She missed how they started the siege. She also missed how the Oto ninjas returned fire. And she missed how they lured the battle away from their homes and into the more treacherous terrain of the surrounding forests.

The fate of the medic, really.

What she hadn't missed, however, were the wounds the Konoha ninjas sustained from their efforts. And those pretty much told her all she needed to know.

Oto nins were weird.

Well, granted, she'd known that before. Not exactly from first-hand knowledge, since the Oto nins she'd faced personally had been pretty normal, all things considered. They'd even used techniques that related to sound. Or at least air pressure. Sort of.

But from what she'd heard from retellings, there had only been one other Oto ninja actually using techniques related to sound, and that had been the girl Shikamaru had to fight (there was a pattern there, somewhere), who had used her flute of all things to cast some sort of genjutsu.

Every other Oto nin she'd heard about since hadn't used any techniques related to sound, at all. However, all their fighting styles closely related to just plain _weirdness_. Kiba was especially fond of mentioning how he'd had grown a second head from his shoulder and that he’d been scarred for life since.

And oh boy, the weirdness she had encountered in the roughly thirty-six hours the siege had taken so far.

Despite what some maps or academy teachers would have you believe, there was no actual Hidden Sound Village to be found or besieged anywhere. No, they were really just attacking some underground hide-out somewhere close to Kusa Gakure that housed a whole damn lot of ninjas affiliated with Orochimaru, and according to their sources, well, to the shinobi she treated that had heard something from someone on the battlefield, Orochimaru was residing right here at the moment, just hadn’t shown his face in the battle yet.

And Sasuke-kun was supposed to be with him.

That was why the majority of their forces was now besieging this particular place; combat units B, C, 3 and 4. Combat units A, 1 and 2 were the ones actually _in_ Oto at the moment, a place in the Land of Rice Fields, where her academy lessons and school book maps had told her the ‘village’ was located, taking care of a similar hide-out there. There were also other, smaller combat units employed at different places, where similar hide-outs were located.

Of course, she only heard that from wounded people who had friends who were somewhere else. And they were all in awe at how well Jirayia-sama had done his research. Well, he'd always been thorough in that regard, if not much else.

The wounds these weird Oto ninjas were causing were... Well, something different, to say the least. Usually, you knew what to expect from a village; Konoha ninjas were most likely to burn you, Suna ninjas used wind, and Iwa ninjas pelted you with rocks. Or buried you underneath them. Or dragged you underground. Iwa ninjas were nasty people. At least according to what they'd been taught by war veterans with a distinct hate of anything Iwa-related.

So far, she had treated burns, cuts, crushed body parts, half-drowned people, poisons of all kinds, some of which she'd never even heard of, weird rashes, victims of some sort of strangulation that technically _should not be possible on the battlefield_ , leave alone in the numbers they were coming in, and one guy had been infested with _leeches_. As a jutsu.

Those thirty-six hours had been more diverse than her whole education as a medic had been so far.

Sakura had slept a total of eight hours between shifts. The whole medical squad was on a diet consisting of soldier pills and caffeine supplements mixed with drugs that caused your adrenaline levels to rise and kept them from receding for a while. And seeing how lacking in numbers the medical department was in general, dividing them among several locations all over the continent had spread them a little thin.

And thus far, she hadn't heard a word of what was supposed to happen with her little extra mission.

Currently, she was on Chakra aided healing, since she had taken her second four hour break just three hours ago. Shifts ideally went eight hours aided healing, eight hours unaided healing, four hours of sleep. She'd been allowed to take her first break earlier though, since the beginning hours had been slow. Now she got a new patient as soon as she finished another. The fact that two of their twelve capable healers were currently asleep and two more were on unaided healing didn't make things any easier. They had about eight more medics in training, picked up by Tsunade's new program, who were only allowed to do unaided healing or treat basic wounds.

At least until they were totally swamped. Which thankfully hadn't happened yet.

 

During those thirty-six hours, they had only lost nine patients. Three of those had been hers, five had been Shizune's, since they got the worst cases, being the most renown medics around, if they had a fighting chance. Casualties that weren't brought in were reportedly low, as well. About ten more, as far as she'd heard. Meaning 19 out of 250 people deployed at their location had died so far. Not a bad average, really.

So all in all, things were actually going pretty well. If it weren't for the unease gnawing on her.

She didn't want to be in here. She wanted to be out there, fighting, and knowing what was going on. Sure, if someone she was close to had died outside, she probably would have heard, but still, she'd like to make _sure_ she hadn't lost anyone she cared about yet.

Currently, Sakura was just closing a basic but very deep cut down someone's arm. Nothing major. In line after him, she'd seen someone with slight burns and a broken leg. That'd be a little more tedious, but well within her capabilities. The really freaky cases hadn't been happening for a while now.

"I don't need a medic!" Someone familiar claimed in front of the medical tent. Sakura rolled her eyes. Famous last words.

"You hear that often?" Her patient concluded.

"You have no idea," she affirmed. "Dibs on that one!"

"But you already have another patient lined up!" The apprentice who divided the cases among them complained. "And this one doesn't sound like an urgent case..."

"Sorry, just acting on orders," another, severely annoyed voice said for what didn't sound like the first time. "I'm doing this because I might get killed if I don't, not because I like you, so get in there already."

Naruto was pushed inside the tent, closely followed by Kiba, who seemed severely annoyed, while Naruto looked mildly freaked out and wouldn't meet her eyes. There was a nasty gash across his midsection that was bleeding out quickly.

"And we're done here," Sakura told her patient whose wound she had closed maybe a little too hastily, but judging from the general condition of his body, he wouldn't mind the scars. "Good luck out there and hope I won't see you again. In a nice way."

The apprentice was taking a closer look at Naruto now.

"That's a little more severe than he sounds," she informed the general audience. "But still not in your field of responsibility, Sakura."

"It's okay, I'll take her next patient." Shizune hurried into the tent after Naruto and Kiba, looking appropriately stressed out. "And after this she's off duty for a while. Move, move, move!"

Kiba pushed the still reluctant Naruto into her compartment.

"How did they get you to be his baby sitter?" Sakura snorted and dragged Naruto onto her table.

"Hinata-chan was freaking out," Kiba explained. "So Neji made me do it. He freaks _me_ out."

"Grown any new heads yet?" She asked with professional interest while taking off Naruto's jacket.

"Am I not here?" Naruto asked annoyed, and apparently a little bashful at getting undressed by her.

"Nah, I stay clear of the freaks," Kiba explained.

"How very sensible of you." Sakura now cut Naruto's shirt open to get better access to the wounds. "Then I feel a lot less conflicted about sending you out there again."

"That's harsh of you," Kiba complained, theatrically clutching his chest as if she'd just hurt his feelings. "But if you insist, my country needs me and all that stuff."

Sakura waved goodbye without taking her eyes off Naruto's stomach.

"How did that happen?" She asked calmly and dabbed at the wound with a piece of cloth to clean it a little and get a better view of the cut. Naruto squirmed away from her a little.

"I don't know..." He mumbled. "Spur of the moment thing..."

"So do you feel anything besides pain and light-headedness from blood loss?" Sakura continued her examination. There seemed no organ damage from the cut. Good for him.

"I don't even feel that," Naruto answered, finally accepting his fate and relaxing a little. "I'm fine, really."

"That's just your adrenaline speaking," she informed him. "Hold still, this might sting a little." She started disinfecting the wound. Naruto flinched a little, but grit his teeth to avoid making noises. "So what's going on outside?"

"Well, we're fighting a bunch of guys," he answered, forcing a grin. "I think we're winning, but they just keep popping up from nowhere. Oh well. And my combat unit is awesome! We're like, four people short of a reunion."

"Four?" Sakura now moved on to closing the wound. "Why four?"

"Well, you're here, we're still working on getting Sasuke to join us, and I think Shikamaru and Ino are helping their dads with logistics, or something," Naruto counted down on his fingers. "But everyone else is there!"

"And you're doing okay?" She pushed him to lie down slightly so she could get access to the entire wound, noticing a weird mark on the closing flesh. Looked like a seal. Huh.

"Yeah, we're doing fine," he assured her nonchalantly. "Except for that scratch there... Oh, it's gone."

"Yeah, I healed it," she explained with a smirk. "It's what I do. And that was way more than a scratch."

"Didn't feel like it." Naruto shrugged. "So you actually do that, wow."

"What did you think I was going to do, set you on fire?" She raised her eyebrows at him. Naruto just laughed.

"Nah, not that bad," he assured. "It's just... the pervert tried to heal me once, and he made a mess of it." Naruto showed her a scar on his right side, going from just above his hip bone to his arm pit. It was uneven and looked like there was dirt in the scar tissue at parts.

"Yeah, I'm a little better than that," she informed him with a satisfied smirk. "I also clean wounds. You need to do that."

"Noted, noted." Naruto dangled his feet absentmindedly.

"Either take another patient or get out!" The door apprentice barked into their general direction.

"She's off duty!" Shizune hectically reminded everyone before rushing over into her compartment. "And so are you," she informed Naruto.

"But I just slept three hours ago!" Sakura protested.

"I'm totally fine now!" Naruto protested louder.

Shizune looked around conspiratorially.

"Yes, but your special mission will start soon," she explained in a hushed voice. "And you'll need all the strength you can get for that. So clear this compartment right now and get over to the resting tents."

They shared a glance, Naruto excited, Sakura mostly worried.

"Finally," he exclaimed under his breath and linked arms with her to drag her with him. "About time we got going, don't you think."

Sakura nodded. Outside the healing tents the world smelled like blood, smoke and death. A sudden wave of dread overcame her. Maybe being stuck in the tents, which were sealed against smells and the like, wasn't such a bad fate in these situations after all.

* * *

 

"Casualties are at twenty-nine."

"Enemy casualties have just reached seventy-three."

"Approximately twenty to thirty enemies left underground."

"Thirty-three of our own currently off duty."

"No sign of the main targets so far."

Ino soon realized that working in logistics and intelligence was about a thousand times more comfortable than doing actual combat during a war. It was also making her hate numbers, even more so than she already did.

Her job was, essentially, to be her father's secretary. Yamanakas had specialized in using their mind related jutsus for communication on the battle field, and thus her dad and some of her other relatives were sitting in a circle and reported random numbers and facts almost non-stop. Her task was to write those numbers down and learn how it was done, so soon she'd be able to be one of the numbers telling people as well.

There was something slightly gruesome about relating to her comrades as nothing more than random numbers of casualties, combat units and people currently off duty. Just that they didn't even say people when referring to... Well, anyone, really.

Occasionally, she got to go one tent further and deliver a sheet of paper with numbers to Shikamaru and his dad and a few other people who were doing the tactics business of this endeavor. Sometimes, Tsunade and Jiraiya were there. Jiraiya also had numbers. More often, Kakashi was there. He was the commanding officer when Tsunade was busy doing other stuff. Healing or fighting or looking for their 'main target'. From what she gathered, that was supposed to be Orochimaru.

Huh. Had it been her village... Er... Hideout under attack and she'd been an evil overpowered genius who was reportedly creepy enough to scare people away by just looking at them, she'd have been out there defending it immediately. And giant snakes probably wouldn't hurt in battle, either way. Well, they would hurt her current side, but like she'd give a damn about that if she were an evil overpowered creepy genius.

But she wasn't. She just happened to be the person with the prettiest handwriting currently in the tent. No, really. They'd try to make other relatives write down stuff for a while, so she could try linking with logistic people's minds and reporting numbers. It had been going pretty well, even if that was, like, even more creepy than just writing them down, but unfortunately, the numbers had been almost illegible. Which was kind of an achievement considering they'd been numbers.

Then again, her mom hadn't forced them all to do the flower shop accounting for her in perfect handwriting for years, had she. Weird what kind of combat applications that turned out to have.

Other changes of scenery occurred when someone came to ask them for poisons. Dealing with plants and flowers, supplying those or at least the ingredients for them also came naturally to the Yamanakas. Gave her top marks back in the academy, even. Too bad Sakura had been better with numbers. Otherwise Ino might now have been the one to be in cahoots with the Hokage and get all the special attention. And on a team with Sasuke-kun. Oh wait, who was she kidding, her family name and heritage would have prevented that, either way. Dammit.

"No new reports."

"Enemy casualties at eighty-nine."

"No new reports."

"Two more of our own off duty."

"No new reports."

"Alright, let's take a short break then," her father commanded and then ordered two of her uncles to go find their replacements and go to sleep, and her to go over to Shikamaru and his dad to deliver the current numbers.

The strategy tent had a full house going on. Tsunade, Jiraiya and Kakashi were all there, looking grim. Even Shizune, who was head of the medical department, had turned up and she wasn't around much except to update casualty counts. Uh-oh.

"May I enter or is sensitive information being disclosed?" She asked before entering.

"You're running around delivering sensitive information," Tsunade pointed out. "It's not like you can become more of a security risk."

She bit down a comment on that and entered, handing the current numbers to Shikamaru who had come over to her while the grown-ups whispered over some sort of scroll or map or whatever. Right. So apparently there was sensitive information being disclosed that she wasn't supposed to hear. Pffht. They could have just said so in the first place.

"What's going on?" She asked quietly, poking Shikamaru in the side to make sure to get his attention.

"Some sort of secret mission," he grunted back. "I don't know the specifics, either. And if I did, I wouldn't be allowed to tell you."

"Right." She rolled her eyes. "So I apparently haven't achieved my full potential as a security risk yet, after all."

"You have, for a Genin," Shikamaru specified. "No, really. They usually don't make those carry around these numbers. Be proud, or something."

"Stop being so high and mighty, Mr. I-only-became-Chuunin-because-I-was-too-lazy-to-keep-fighting," she hissed at him and elbowed him for emphasize. He raised his hands defensively.

"I was just stating facts," he pointed out. "Also, give this to your father and don't read it." He handed her another scroll.

"Did anyone die we know?" She asked somberly. That was something the numbers didn't tell her. She knew exactly how many people were deployed where, when and for how long and how many had died and how many were injured and how many were just sleeping, she'd spent her hours here writing down all of that almost non-stop, but she had no idea who the _people_ behind those numbers were and it freaked her out. And Shikamaru was her best shot at getting anything but reproachful looks out of as answers to her questions.

"Chouji's dad has been injured and is off-duty," he answered somberly, chewing his lips. "I don't know how seriously, but apparently still alive."

"Chouza-san?" She had to struggle to keep her voice down. She had always liked Chouji's dad. He was nice and less strict than her own parents and he made nice food and they'd always had awesome cookies when she was little.

"And that's why you usually don't get the names," Shikamaru said. "Makes you worry, gets you distracted."

"I worry anyways," Ino pointed out, chewing her lips now as well. Nervous habit she tried to get rid of. Unfortunately, you couldn't just put polish on them to make them taste bad like on finger nails, and the rough equivalent of lip gloss usually tasted good. "Have you heard from Chouji, then?"

"No." Shikamaru shifted his weight uncomfortably. "Just overheard people talking. Chuunins usually don't get this much intel, either, you know."

"So who's worried and distracted now, huh?" She asked triumphantly while still keeping her voice down. "I can see right through you, Nara Shikamaru!"

"We've known each other since the day you were born and you're specialized in gathering information," Shikamaru replied, not intimidated or appreciative in the slightest. "I'd be worried if you _couldn't_ read me."

She stuck her tongue out at him. Then she got an idea.

"You know that communication thing my family does?" She asked. Shikamaru gave her a look usually reserved for the mentally challenged.

"Is that how you've been getting those numbers all day, it all makes sense now," he deadpanned. She elbowed him again.

"Well, what I mean is, I can talk to people with that," she specified. "People like, I dunno, medics who've been taking care of Chouza-san?"

"I don't think you're supposed to do that," he pointed out, glancing at the important people who were still busy whispering about more important things than them.

"Well, try and stop me." She rolled up her sleeves and made few quick hand-seals.

Getting into the minds of people to control them was something completely different from trying to communicate with them. It was kind of easier and more difficult at the same time. Easier, because she could stay in her own body and didn't have to use all her mental capacities to control another. More difficult, because she had to keep the other person’s consciousness intact instead of chasing it out, and she also had to find that person first.

Well, she'd discovered that communicating with people whose mind she's already been in before was easiest. So her choice for a target was made quickly.

 _Ino to forehead girl, I have a question for you!_ , were her invitational words to Sakura's consciousness, which offered astoundingly little resistance for somebody who'd once been able to push her out completely.

 _Sleeping. Go away._ , was Sakura's apparently not all that conscious answer. Ino rolled her eyes.

 _Listen, Chouji's dad was injured, can you tell me how he's doing?_ She tried sounding as nicely as possible.

 _Hasn't died yet, wasn't my patient, so all I know is that it wasn't too serious._ Geez, Sakura's helpful mind was getting her sleepy, as well. So tiredness was contagious. Good to know!

 _Please, just get up and check on him quickly, I'll owe you!_ , Ino urged her on as kindly as she could and trying to subtly mess with Sakura's mind a little, just to see if she could.

 _I hate you. Stop tickling me._ Sakura didn't sound any less annoyed, while her consciousness sort of slapped Ino in the face. She was weird like that. Then everything got a little shaky. That was also weird. Logistic people didn't shake like that.

 _What are you doing?_ , she asked, trying not to sound, er, think, or whatever, too freaked out. Which she was. Because shaking wasn't normal.

 _I'm trying to find Akimichi-san's bed so you'll leave me alone._ , Sakura answered groggily. _Or I could just push you out. But that would require more focus than reading a file. Do not want._

 _You're the best!_ Ino would have sent her a mental hug but didn't feel like testing her capabilities any further.

 _He's recovering from blood loss. Currently asleep. Nothing major, everything still attached. Can I go back to sleep now? I have important stuff coming up. Not fun. Stop tickling._ Sakura's mind just wouldn't give in to maybe reveal what sort of important stuff she was up to. Stupid subconscious thing of hers. But anyways. Ino had what she wanted.

 _Thank you so much! I owe you!_ She tried to send her relief with her, but Sakura shook it off.

 _Don't mention it. Want sleep. Out of my head._ And with that, Ino was unceremoniously shoved out of Sakura's mind again. What was that about focus again. Stupid Sakura and her mental weirdness. Oh well.

"He's alright," she then told Shikamaru, trying to keep her breath still. Sakura's mind was exhausting. "Recovering from blood loss, but otherwise doing okay."

"Don't tell me," Shikamaru said grumpily, but couldn't quite hide the concern in his eyes. "It's not my dad."

"Just... Taking a short break," Ino explained. They were still keeping their voices down as to not alert the important people in the room. "Sakura's mind is harder to get into than most. I'll tell Chouji in a minute."

When she had recovered enough to use the jutsu again, she was in for an unpleasant surprise; Chouji didn't offer much mental resistance, and she'd practiced her jutsu on him often enough to be able to grip him easily. He was shaking worse than Sakura, though, and due to his low guard, Ino caught glimpses of the fight he was in. He was doing okay, and Kiba and Lee apparently had his back, but this still wasn't the best situation for a full-blown conversation. Oh well.

_Your father's doing okay. Just sleeping off his blood loss right now. No need to worry. Keep kicking ass._

She felt a surge of relief before she left, though Chouji wasn't able to have a full mental conversation with her while fighting. Would have been too distracting for him, anyways.

When she resurfaced, she noticed she was holding onto Shikamaru for support. Chouji had been even more draining than Sakura. It was a good thing that she didn't need her chakra supplies to write down numbers.

"What happened?" Shikamaru whispered insistently, supporting her best and as subtly as he could.

"Chouji's okay," she told him. "Fighting, but okay. And he got the message."

"Good job." Shikamaru actually smiled at her for that. Wow. Rare occurrence. Usually he just rolled his eyes at her.

"What are you kids up to over there?" The important adults suddenly seemed to have noticed them again, judging by this remark of Jiraiya's.

"Nothing," Shikamaru answered quickly.

"I'm just a little tired, Sorry," Ino apologized. "Mind talking is draining."

"Go take a break then," Tsunade ordered. "Your dad can spare you for a few hours."

"Okay then." She gave Shikamaru an apologetic smile. She may have done stuff she wasn't supposed to, but hey, it had been for a good cause. And who could turn down a personal order from the Hokage? Sure beat writing down gruesome numbers for a while, anyways.

 

* * *

 

Things were actually going well.

After almost two days of fighting, Tenten was limping on one foot, but not seriously enough to require medical attention, had counted about twenty-four kills, and had not seen anyone she knew die. Granted, that was mostly because she had spent her time surrounded by other members of combat unit C, aka people who had careers and weren't all that likely to die in the first place, but hey. A plus was a plus.

She was fighting a relatively fair fight on a clearing, while some other combat units had been lured into the forests or were fighting on the stairs down to the hide-out, but since the situation there had been resolved, this was where most of the fighting was happening.

She was currently fighting using two spears she had summoned; she liked using spears and staffs, especially on close quarters and when under attack by several opponents at once. They gave her leverage and made her hard to hit. Well, one spear did that. While she was strong enough to wield one with each hand, using two at once also slowed her down immensely, but right now, enough people had her back to make that okay. And the second spear did a great job in preventing her from putting pressure on her injured leg.

She jammed the butt of her right spear into the eye of the guy who'd just lunged at her, quite clumsily actually, and flung him into another enemy, currently engaged in a fight with Kiba's dog whose name she couldn't recall at the moment. The other spear was being stabbed through a third opponent who'd been about to attack Neji, not that he needed the protection. Then she had to dodge a blast of water being shot into her direction, by jumping up as high in the air as one leg aided by a spear would take her, identified the person who had fired the blast, and threw her spear at them, hitting them right through the chest. Awesome.

It sucked about the lack of support, but taking out targets able to shoot elemental stuff at them took priority. She broke her fall by jamming the remaining spear into the ground, and kicked an enemy in the face with her good leg while dangling from it. But when she was on the ground again, she had trouble getting the spear out of the ground, which had been trodden muddy by the opposing forces during the hours of battle; a state which was not helped much by being subjected to blasts of water. She dodged one attack from the left by quickly drawing a kunai and managing to hit an artery on the opponent's attack arm, but was tackled from the right and fell into the mud, luckily without sustaining any wounds, as her opponent was being torn to shreds by Akamaru, whose name had suddenly returned to her, while the guy still on top of her.

"Good dog," she praised the dog when she'd gotten up on her feet again. "But next time, not on top of me, please."

"Stop complaining and get medical attention." Somehow Neji had made his way to her. Seconds after having said this, he was busy warding them from five attackers at once; 360 degree coverage will do that.

"But I'm okay!" She claimed, quickly summoned another spear while Neji was guarding her, before burrowing it in one of the guys almost out of his perimeter. "Seriously, I am. Foot hurts a little, but I'll walk it off."

Neji had however already moved on to another group of opponents who were getting dangerously close to where Hinata was fighting. Well, he couldn't be that concerned about her then and rightfully so. It's not like she was some stupid, over-eager hot head, didn't know her limits or desperately had something to prove here. Except for maybe that even people from her kind of backgrounds could fight in combat units with letters instead of numbers without being a hindrance, or something. Though all things considered, being a hindrance at this point meant you had an uncontrollable urge to perform large area attacks that took down as many of your comrades as they did enemies. But those people were put elsewhere.

She hurried over to where someone she vaguely recognized from the academy graduate class above her was being swarmed on. Well, as swarmed on as you could be at this point where the enemy lines had thinned considerably. Still, he didn't look like he could fend off seven people for too long, so she thrust her spear into one of them and used the momentum to kick the one next to him straight into the face with both feet. Ouch. Feet did not like that.

When she was back on the ground, or rather her opponents face was, a sharp pain rushed through her; she'd failed to dodge a cut by one of the swarming ninjas around her, and now had a nasty gash across her side. Dammit.

She slammed the butt of her spear backwards blindly, hitting the one who had cut her side right in the stomach, judging by how giving the target was. Turning around, she also used the sharp and to stab him into the ground, before quickly crouching down to dodge a sword coming in from her left. She quickly kicked her attacker against the ankle, ouch, making him fall before getting back up herself. Again, her spear failed to come out of the ground, and well, the person on it, in time, so she had to kick the sword fighter's nose in before being armed again.

The cut on her side was bleeding enough to annoy her. Maybe it _was_ time to see the medics... She could check up on Penghe and Xinlu while she was there, too. See how they were doing on their first medical employment.

 

* * *

 

Sakura was awoken by screams and explosions. And Ino's voice in her head.

_Get up, it's urgent, your special mission is starting now, whatever that means._

She was up on her feet and dragging Naruto with her in close to no time. Their mission scroll had specified they were supposed to get to the command center immediately upon notification. The command center was obviously another tent, where they were expected by Shikamaru's dad and Kakashi, both looking grim and like they hadn't slept since they'd gotten there.

"What the hell is going on?" Naruto demanded, effectively shouting over the battle noises outside which seemed to have quadrupled in the last few minutes.

"Orochimaru has entered the battle," Kakashi explained. "We're about to break through the ranks defending the entrance, Tsunade and Jiraiya are distracting him. When we do, you two get in there and find Sasuke."

"Okay," Naruto seemed unsure for the first time. "So how do we do that?"

"He's down there somewhere," Shikamaru's dad said. "The place is not too big, so you can't get lost too badly. Chances are, he's on his way up to joining the fray as well. You remember your instructions?"

"Yes," Sakura said before Naruto could try and argue them again.

"Then leave. Immediately."

 

***

 

The entrance to the hide-out had been where the fighting was thickest from the beginning. Thus, it was the place with the most corpses lying around, most of them enemy ninjas, and where the ground was the most blood-soaked.

Sakura had gotten used to corpses and blood in her time as Tsunade's apprentice. Just not in that amount. And Naruto next to her looked positively sick.

They caught glimpses of the big battle of this siege in the background; a giant snake, a giant toad and a giant snail fighting each other and occasionally shooting stuff they themselves shouldn't have been able to. Sakura had to force herself not to pay too much attention to what was going on there. That wasn't her fight.

Her fight hadn't even started yet.

The fighting around the entrance was still going on, though it had calmed down significantly since the big battle had begun; you didn't see something like that every day. Still, the Oto-Nins were as ferociously defending this part of their home as ever, but seemed to be at the end of their numbers. Sakura and Naruto had clear instructions to wait for an opening and then sneak inside as unseen as possible; neither the Oto-Nins nor their own shinobi were supposed to know what they were doing, this mission being top-secret and all. Sakura didn't quite understand the reason for that, since anyone with two brain cells to rub together could probably figure out that they would try getting Sasuke-kun back if they could when they just so happened to be in his vicinity, but no matter.

Problem was, deciding what was an opening and what wasn't proved to be kinda hard. Sure, there were plenty of openings or unprotected spots where might have been able to slip through, but definitely not completely unnoticed; her hair kind of drew attention to it even at dusk right now, and Naruto was about as subtle as a wrecking ball. And that was on a good day.

Being able to do something more than just break genjutsus would have come in handy at this point, Sakura mused, but she'd never tried doing something like that and this didn't strike her as the best moment to try.

"I think we have to join the fighting," Naruto whispered after waiting and watching for a good ten minutes. "I mean, if we do, and get rid of all the Oto-Nins, then we can tell the Konoha people to go join the big battle over there and go in, right?"

"I'm not sure they'd let us in," Sakura argued. "It's not like we can pull rank or tell them about our orders, and they'd definitely want to have a look at the hide-out themselves. And the more people go in, the more of a warning whoever's still down there will have... And how do we even know Sasuke-kun's still here? They could have just taken him away..."

"Don't start thinking that," Naruto reprimanded her. "He's definitely down there, and we're definitely gonna get him, don't ever start doubting that or we have lost already."

"Alright," Sakura agreed reluctantly. Naruto might have been able to work miracles with his pep talks on most people, and she had to admit from a motivational standpoint he was doing a pretty good job, but she'd had to rely on her own wits more than on his idealism for almost two years now and had gotten better results in total, so she'd keep doubting, just to be careful. "We just need a distraction. Any ideas?"

"My Kage Bunshin can be a distraction," Naruto suggested. "And, like, start a fight somewhere else that everybody will pay attention to, or something."         

"I don't think they're going to fall for that," Sakura assumed. "But Kage Bunshin are a good idea... Just... Make them join the fight. We need a lot of them. And then I'll use a Henge to look like one of your Bunshin as well, and while everything's full of... you, essentially, we can slip inside unnoticed, because who cares if there's two more or less of you around."

"This sounds so weird." Naruto shuddered. "But yeah, sounds like it could work."

And to Sakura's immense surprise, it worked about as well as it could have; the Narutos completely overwhelmed the enemies, and once they were... Done, none of the Konoha shinobi had any further instructions regarding the base, so the Naruto clones managed to convince them to report back to Kakashi, their commanding officer, who was obviously in on the whole thing, and nobody was any wiser as to where some of the Narutos might have gone.

It was almost comical how well the easiest plans worked out at times. If she'd felt like laughing. Which she very decidedly didn't.

The hide-out was enormous. She'd seen another one before, on a brief mission, the one that was actually located where the maps claimed Oto no Kuni was, and that one had been pretty big underground, but this one was practically a maze.

"How are we supposed to find anything here?" Naruto asked after they had taken a few turns and not even encountered a rat.

"So I guess you can't sense chakra, either," Sakura concluded. "Uhm... Put our left hands to the wall and see where it takes us?"

"Wouldn't that just make us walk all over the place until we find the exit?" Naruto had apparently briefly paid attention to that lesson.

"Or anything else, and we know we don't miss anything," Sakura elaborated.

"I don't think we have time for that." He looked around frantically. "Geez, I can't even hear people anywhere! Where did they put their wounded? Shouldn't they be close to the entrance?"

"Be glad that they're not," Sakura said darkly. "Where there are wounded, there are medics attending to them. And I really don't feel like running into Oto's head of healing right now."

"You mean that creep Kabuto?" Naruto shuddered. "Yeah, no kidding. Let's just move."

So they moved. A lot. Took a few more turns, ended up at the same place, and not progressing in the slightest. Sakura then suggested following the wind, but not going to where it was coming from, but to where it was headed the most, since that might suggest the deepest way down into this hide-out, though she wasn't too sure about this herself. Neither the academy nor her extracurricular reading had ever taught her how to navigate mazes beyond getting out of them.

 

***

 

When Tenten returned from her brief healing session, the battle in the clearing had calmed down significantly. There were only a few enemies left, who had drawn back into some kind of formation, but that wouldn't last long, judging by the relentless onslaught by the Konoha forces. Nothing much she could do at this point...

And then the giant snake happened.

Just... poof! And there it was, not too far from their clearing, rising up over the tree tops, with maybe a person on top of it, and for a moment, everyone just stopped and stared.

That stop and stare moment caused five more casualties on their side in under three minutes, as the remaining Oto Nins were just a little more used to this occurrence. However, the battle was finished shortly after this, as the horrified Konoha nins hit back with added ferocity.

Not that it did them much good.

The giant's snake's tail whipped through the forest surrounding them, uprooting trees as it went, and finally smashing through the bulk of the offensive, coming towards her way faster than should have been possible for something this massive.

Tenten did the only sensible thing; running up a tree to her back, so when the tail hit, she could jump from there and come out far above it. The landing wouldn't be nice, but it sure beat being crushed to death by a giant purple tail.

Which would have worked out greatly, had the tail not _come back_ , again not hitting her, but the airwaves caused by it force were still strong enough to knock her into the next tree. She wasn't conscious anymore when she hit the floor. Ouch.

 

***

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In two weeks, Sakura and Naruto will do some dungeon crawling, Tenten gets to evaluate nurses, Sasuke will show his face. There will be vomit, mud wrestling and whipping and none of it will be sexy in the slightest. Hope to see you then!


	3. Not Today

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura and Naruto will do some dungeon crawling, Tenten gets to evaluate nurses, Sasuke will show his face. There will be vomit, mud wrestling and whipping and none of it will be sexy in the slightest. Nevertheless, beware of the M-Rating.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the one-day delay, life got in the way. And also an addictive Dragon Age fanfiction. Enjoy!

03\. Not Today

 

"Tenten-san, are you okay?"

She didn't feel okay at all. Somehow, everything hurt, and she was dizzy and what the hell was even going on...

Opening her eyes, she was greeted with ginormous dark and concerned eyes, framed by equally ginormous eyebrows which could only belong to her other teammate.

"Hey, Lee-kun..." She greeted him, smiling lazily, before suddenly keeling over and throwing up, thankfully not hitting anyone, herself included.

"Yes, she seems fine," a completely unconcerned, slightly sneering voice contributed that could only belong to Neji. Lee was meanwhile being a good friend and held back the strands of her hair that had come loose, while patting her back and cooing soothing words at her. If she ever got seriously ill, she'd demand him as her nurse. He even let her take a sip from his water skin once she was done!

"So what's going on now?" She asked, leaning back against her tree and watching funny patterns dance in front of her eyes. "Why do you have time to babysit me? Not that I don't appreciate it, I just thought there'd be more going on right now..."

"Gai-sensei's order," Neji explained stoically, without missing a beat.

"I feel so loved," she retorted, rolling her eyes. Ouch, very bad idea.

"And because we're your team mates and we care about you!" Lee hastily added.

"It's okay, Lee," she managed a slight laugh. "So what happened to the war? And the snake. I hate that snake."

"The snake is currently occupied with Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama and their respective summons," Neji explained. "Far enough from the military encampment as to not cause any more collateral damage. We're regrouping for a possible sneak attack on Orochimaru and the snake, but there have been no further orders."

"Alright." Tenten tried to get back on her feet, but was a little too fast, apparently, as the pretty patterns took over her head entirely, and she kind of lost track of where the ground was, until her head hit what smelled like Neji's shoulder, and Lee caught her by wrapping his arms around her middle.

For an uninvolved bystander, the scene must have looked hilarious.

"You seem to have a concussion," Neji noted, eyebrows raised.

"Oh, reeeaaaally?" Tenten replied, leaning into Lee's support.

"We need to get you to the healing tents!" Lee concluded and hoisted her up, bridal style, before hurrying off. She could practically feel Neji's smirk burning into the back of her head.

Oh, well. There were worse ways to get swept off your feet.

 

***

 

Sakura had a hard time telling how long she and Naruto had been wandering around aimlessly. Though after some time, they actually did run into an Oto Nin, wearing the standard uniform, hiding everything but the eyes grey leo print. They overwhelmed them before even thinking about it, but he bit off his own tongue and choked on his own blood before they could interrogate him.

Naruto stared at the corpse, looking crestfallen.

"Why... Why did he do that?" He asked after a while.

"Loyalty," Sakura explained. "It's what we're all supposed to do before the enemy can torture information out of us."

"But... We're the good guys..." Naruto frowned. "Aren't we?"

"Not for the Oto Nins," Sakura answered. It hurt a lot to be the one to break this to Naruto, but there was no helping it at this point. "To them, we're just destroying their home and out to kill their leader."

"But... I would have taken him along!" Naruto argued. "He could have helped us, and then we'd have taken him to Konoha with us, and... Things would be better..."

Sakura briefly wondered why he only worried about that now; he'd been fighting and most likely killing enemy ninjas for the better part of two days now. Though those were probably conceived as more of a threat, since they were also attacking his friends at the time, so... Maybe it made sense for him to only worry about this now. And this place was most likely dragging him down as much as her, just that she had always been a little more aware of the broader context of what they were doing.

Or maybe this one isolated incident had just been the last straw.

"Well, I know you prefer talking to you opponents over killing them," she carefully tried to console him. "And you're pretty damn good at it. And don't get me wrong, I'd infinitely prefer that over violence, as well, I'm just not as talented. But you need to understand that not everybody will want to listen to what you have to say."

"Then I'll have to _make_ them listen," Naruto concluded, deeply determined again. Sakura was relieved.

"That's the spirit," she encouraged him. "Let's move on, there might be other people where he came from."

"So here you are," a gruff, bored sounding voice sort of interrupted them, making them jump. The way they had come from was Pakkun, the smallest of Kakashi's dogs, looking quite annoyed with everything. "Figured you'd get yourselves lost."

 

***

 

Her little brother Penghe was definitely not someone Tenten would request as a nurse should she ever need one. She realized that he was new to this and everything was rushed and confusing, but really? No need to be that stressed out over something as minor as a concussion.

"Come on, I bet you healed crazier stuff today," she tried to encourage him, as he was almost too afraid to apply any pressure to her head, even though at least a little bit of that was needed to get any kind of healing done, as far as she knew.

"I don't like working with heads," he explained. "One wrong move, one bad chakra wave, and you brain is mush."

"Thanks for telling me that." She tried not to laugh. Her little brother had always been a little jumpy with responsibility. "I hope every patient gets this much honesty from you."

"Shut up." He seemed flustered now. He was not even a whole year younger than her and so had just a little less experience. Then again, he'd only been training as a medic nin for about nine months now, when Tsunade had started picking up system ninjas with good chakra control for her program, so he was probably doing quite well. Who was she to judge.

 

She sensed what was coming even before she heard it. Not sure how, but somehow, there always was a certain... Tension building immediately before something bad happened. Bad in this case meant the sudden outburst of renewed combat noises from outside the tent, screams that were quickly muffled, and the sudden presence of way more people than there had been before.

"We're under attack!" Came the announcement for anyone who may have actually been wearing ear plugs due to suicidal tendencies. If it was loud enough to get through those, granted. She wouldn't know; she'd never worn any.

"Am I good to go?" She formally asked her brother, in a tone that left no doubt that a) she wasn't really asking and b) his answer wouldn't matter anyways.

"Yes, you are," he said, sounding terrified. She couldn't blame him; ambushes were bad when you got surprised by about ten people as a four people cell. Ambushes on a scale of hundreds, as it sounded like, were about infinitely worse.

She jumped to her feet, this time with neither her feet nor her head in particular pain, grabbed her scrolls from beside her and left the medical tent in a hurry, with about every other ninja who'd been receiving treatment right now and was still able to walk and hold a weapon. Outside, she was greeted by Gai-sensei, who was acting as a commanding officer under Kakashi and currently yelling out his instructions.

"Units B and C to the south, Two to the west and Three to the east!" He bellowed, looking more serious than she'd ever seen him in a combat situation. "Move, people, but do not despair! Our youthful spirits will prevail!"

...Or maybe not. Whatever worked for him.

 

Truth be told, there was no actual way to really spread out the combat units at this point; the ambush had come in from all directions, just that the north was still occupied by giant animals wrecking up the forest and taking quick care of any additional enemy. But since most of the Konoha forces had been resting, the circle drawn around them by the new assailants was so small, actually defining directions was nearly impossible.

Tenten soon found herself battling quite a few new enemies on the same clearing she'd been fighting on earlier; just that this time, the enemies seemed to be coming from Kusa, judging by what she saw of their forehead protectors during battle. Which wasn't too much, all things considered; the clearing was positively crowded, and from what she gathered, there were snipers in the surrounding forests targeting them as well. It seemed that all of Kusa had found its way here, but why?

Last thing she'd hear of Kusa was that they were actually more on the diplomatic end of things, and they had been on sort of friendly terms with Konoha the last few years... So what the hell was even going on?

 

***

 

They followed Pakkun, who was navigating them sure-footed through all forks and crossroads for about twenty minutes, this place was seriously gigantic, before the little dog froze on the spot.

"What's wrong?" Naruto asked, after almost tripping over the little dog.

"Something smells like it's burning," the pug answered, sounding even more displeased than usually. "Smells like human."

Naruto and Sakura exchanged a disgusted glance.

"Does it smell like Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked, though that wasn't very likely. Sasuke-kun was a fire user; surely he wouldn't let himself get burned.

"Not... Really." Pakkun sniffed the air noisily. "Familiar, but not like that Uchiha boy. Meh, what's burning probably can't kill you, so let's just move on."

And true enough, a few more corridors down, another corpse was lying on the ground. It was also on fire. The fire was black.

"What the hell..." Naruto muttered confused and bent down, careful avoiding the strangely swirly black flames. "Is that... Is that Kabuto?"

"Let's hope so..." Sakura bent down beside him. It seemed as if the burning flesh was... growing back under the flames, only to be burnt off again. "Do we know anyone else down here who can regenerate himself?"

"I don't think we know anyone down here besides this guy and Sasuke," Naruto countered.

"Fair enough," Sakura admitted. "Do we know anyone who burns people with black flames?"

"Huh..." Naruto seemed lost in thought for a moment. "I think I do... Like, I've seen flames like those before... I just... Nah, I don't remember anymore. Probably wasn't important."

Sakura was about to point out that black flames at some ominous point in his past re-appearing right now, down here, during this critical mission probably were quite important, but caught herself when she saw his worried expression. Right. There was no use in getting Naruto's spirit down right now. In fact, that would be completely counterproductive. She knew full-well that their success in getting Sasuke-kun back depended entirely on him.

"Would you move on sometime soon?" Pakkun had already continued through the maze. "It's not far now!"

And sure enough, only three turns and four hallways later, they came to the entrance of an illuminated hall, and there were voices coming from the hall. Sakura motioned for Naruto to at all costs remain quiet and stay where he was; simply rushing in there could ruin every chance they had of ever even finding Sasuke down here. So they slowly, as silently as they could, approached the entrance, trying to stay out of view.

"It seems safe to say that Kabuto-sama isn't coming back," someone in the room said. "It's been an hour."

"Are there any news from the surface at all?" This sounded like the person in charge at the moment.

"None," a third person answered. "We must assume the worst."

"But had the defenses been breached, wouldn't they have stormed down here?" A fourth voice asked.

"Orochimaru-sama is out there fighting," the person apparently in command reminded them. "They probably need to concentrate their forces on that... Nevertheless, we need to escort you out of here, Sasuke-sama."

The name sent shivers down her spine. So Sasuke-kun was here, after all, just a few feet away, so, so close... She almost made a sound, could hardly keep her feet on the ground, so strong was the urge to just run in there... But then she saw Naruto, struggling with the same urges, and her senses returned to her. Storming in there now would not be any better than it had been a few seconds ago, so she motioned frantically for Naruto to stay where he was. As hard as it was for both of them.

"I don't need an escort."

Sakura stifled a gasp. Now she _really_ had to force herself to stay calm. Just knowing he was there was _nothing_ compared to what his voice did to her. It was a little deeper, a little rougher than she remembered, and slightly hoarse, but still... This was Sasuke-kun talking. And she was acting unprofessionally. Dammit, she'd wanted to stop doing that.

From the other side of the entrance, Naruto shot her a glance, eyebrows mockingly raised. She rolled her eyes to hide her embarrassment and waved dismissively. Naruto grinned.

"I'm sorry, Sasuke-sama, but we have strict orders..."

"I don't follow your orders."

Now Naruto had to stifle a laugh. Sakura had had to, as well – she just wasn't as obvious about it. Sasuke-kun had never been easy to handle, and the way the commanding officer was acting like a doormat around him wasn't helping in the slightest.

"But we're here to protect you!" These people really didn't know how to talk to him. It was hilarious.

"I can take care of myself," Sasuke-kun informed them. "Or I wouldn't be here anymore."

"Yes, we know that, but you shouldn't have to!" This was a new voice. "Our orders are to keep you out of sight, and the defenses may be breached any minute! The special units have already left; you _need_ to get out of here before Konoha people find you!"

"I don't _need_ to do anything." His bluntness made several people in the room gasp. "There are already Konoha people in here, at the door, and I don't feel like running."

It took a while for these words to register, then Sakura realized he was talking about them. So their efforts to keep from laughing (or gasping, and maybe a little swooning, just a tiny little bit) hadn't been too successful.

"We have infiltrators?!" Thankfully, the other people in the room were even slower on the uptake. "Where? Show yourselves!"

With a shrug, Sakura signaled Naruto that disobeying the order probably wouldn't make much sense, so they entered the hall.

It was the biggest one they'd encountered so far; the walls lined with torches, and two big columns supporting the ceiling. Also in the room were ten Oto Nin, all in the regular attire but with a few strands of colorful hair showing here and there, and... Sasuke-kun. Of course. Who was now looking at them displeased.

"On the other hand, I don't feel like listening to them, either." He then announced to the still stunned Oto Nins, who were probably trying to figure out how they could have missed the intruders all this time. All of two minutes, maybe. "So do what you will."

With these words, he turned and left through a back entrance on the opposite side of the hall. He _left_. Oh no. Not happening.

"After him!" Sakura yelled, and Naruto bolted, running past her towards where Sasuke-kun just had been, had been _so close_ , but when she tried to follow, the Oto Nins awakened from their stupor and started attacking. She shook off the first two who lunged at her, dropping and rolling to make them crash into each other successfully, and jumping back on her feet to tackle another one who was trying to attack Naruto from the back.

They both went down to the floor, Sakura kicking him repeatedly so he stayed down, and when she came up again, Naruto had left, too. Good. So it fell to her to guard the door to keep her boys uninterrupted.

There were nine Oto Nins left standing, two of them standing again, and one of them holding a profusely bleeding ankle. So Pakkun had been able to at least cause some damage before vanishing. So it was only her.

And nine Oto Nins.

She did not like these odds.

 

***

 

Tenten couldn't see. It had gotten dark, and it was raining, and her bangs were in her eyes half of the time, and everything was wet and nasty. From what she heard, despite the overwhelming numbers of the Kusa ambushers, they were somehow _winning_ , or at least here they were, but she couldn't tell for sure. She had also completely lost track of how long she'd been doing this and how many people she had killed or knocked out or anything. It all had become monotonous in a way; slash, slash, kill, dodge, slash some more, ouch.

At some point, she had received a shallow cut down her right leg, which she hadn't even noticed until it dried enough to make her pants sticky, and hurt when she moved. Not enough to make her stop, though; these bastards had dared attacking them when they were almost done here and mostly resting, how dare they?

(Yes, they had attacked Oto without a warning too, as far as she knew, what's your point?)

Sometimes she was distantly aware of knowing someone who was fighting beside her. That was good; that way she knew her team mates weren't dead. Not that she expected them to be – her own odds were much worse. Slash, dodge, dodge some more, kick off feet, and lunge. More blood on her.

The only way they were able to tell Konoha ninjas apart from Kusa ninjas was that the Konoha people were generally bloodier and dirtier since they had been doing this for way longer. But the rain had transformed the clearing, where the ground had already been trodden soft by the previous battle with the Oto Nins and people splashing around with water jets, into something more like a swamp, so Kusa Nins got just as dirty as the Konoha Nins in no time.

Dodge, roll, ew mud, slash, slash, oh, good sword, get up, slash. If this went on for much longer, they'd all be in serious danger of drowning in mud. And blood. That, too.

Something knocked her over again, making her meet the mud once more. At least she convinced herself that she was imagining the metallic taste it left in her mouth. Maybe she'd bitten her tongue a little. Reflexively, she dodged the incoming attack by turning around and blocking it with her sword, knocking the Kunai right out of her opponent’s hand. Clumsy, really. Why hadn't he thrown it? She tried jumping back to her feet as she had done countless times today already, but the mud wouldn't let her. Instead she just splashed some of it, giving her the idea to kick more mud into her opponent’s eyes before he could draw another Kunai or perform some sort of jutsu.

The small moment of confusion gave her enough time to draw her legs under her so she could get up the slower and less impressive way, but at least she was on her feet again. That became harder the more often she fell down, considering how soaked with mud (and nothing else) her clothes were at this point. Everyone around would have pneumonia in the morning, she could tell. Well, not her opponent, she amended, as she jammed her new sword sideways through his chest, unsure if she'd hit the heart, but she definitely pierced a lung, and that was enough to be sure this bastard wasn't getting up again.

Wiping the hair out of her eyes and smearing her face with totally-just-mud in the process, she had a brief moment of quiet to look around. Fighting was still going on everywhere around here, but someone had apparently taken care of the snipers. She could also still make out the silhouette of a giant snake and a giant toad battling. Huh. Where did the slug go?

She shivered. There was a roar. A deep, weird roar coming from the very ground, uhm, mud she was standing on, er, in. Then there was a weird vibration in that very same puddle of mud, shaking her to her core... What the hell?

When she heard the first crack, Tenten knew she should have gotten out of there, but her feet were deep in the mud and she didn't react quick enough to pull them out in time, before suddenly, the ground somehow... _Collapsed_.

There were screams, so many screams all around, piercing her ears even worse than the groaning and roaring and rumbling of the ground did, as she... Slid down instead of fell, trying to hold on the ground behind her, or was it above her now? Hand full of chakra, she crawled upwards, trying, trying to escape whatever was going on here, and coming out on top of... a part of that chunk of ground that was _sinking_ for some reason. And weirdly dry. Dry was good. She could stay on dry.

Then her chunk broke off, and she fell.

She caught hold of other chunks, left and right, oblivious to the people falling and being buried alongside her, just trying to get to somewhere that wasn't moving right now, her hands slipping off the muddy parts and the parts getting wet from the rain and whatever else. She couldn't see where she was going, just went by the sounds and the smell, and it seemed like she had made it, at least almost, when something heavy fell on her hips and pinned her in place. Ouch.

Then something else hit her head, and the world got even darker.

 

* * *

 

There had been days when Sakura had cursed Tsunade for focusing a large part of her training on nothing but dodging. Today was not one of these days.

Something told her that facing nine different people whose abilities she knew nothing about in a vast room like this with the objective to keep all of them from going through one tiny door was kind of a flawed plan. Fortunately, nobody had informed these goons about that, who were all too eager to attack her at once. Maybe sort of sneaking up on them had wounded their pride. Maybe they had to let out all the pent up aggression caused by Sasuke-kun disrespecting them.

Either way, it was working out for her. If you could call being attacked by nine people at once working out. Which... In a way you could. Wow.

If Tsunade could see her now, dodging and evading punches, kicks, weapons and _were those claws_ from all sides while guarding a door and making them all punch, kick, slice and claw at each other in the process, she would have been very proud. Probably proud enough to not have her take any dodging lessons for the rest of the week...

Her only problem was that while she could keep dodging uncoordinated attacks for a long time, she couldn't build up momentum to actually finish someone off on these close quarters; not without risking someone slipping past her and being a hindrance to Naruto, and something told her he didn't need any of those right now. Also, what happened if these people started coordinating? And was that _another_ pair of claws?

She narrowly evaded what clearly was a pair of claws attached to weirdly brown-purplish arms. Oh god. She'd heard of this. That was what the cursed seal did to you if you moved past the black swirls and purple glow she'd seen on Sasuke-kun. She'd heard all the horror stories from mostly Kiba and Shikamaru and sometimes Chouji about what kinds of things these people were capable of once they activated it. _Oh god._

Luckily for her, activating the Juin also made her opponents bulkier, giving her the opportunity to build up enough momentum to kick someone hard enough to break his shin. Two down, eight more to go. Five of them now with unhealthy looking skin and way too much hair. Oh god.

Another claw lunged at her; she ducked and drove a Kunai straight up a not-yet transformed abdomen, blood splashing in her face, seven more to go. Six of them transformed.

Seizing the opportunity, she flung the gutted body at one of the transformed people next to the last untransformed one, giving her a clear shot. She first kicked him in the stomach to make him bend over, then brought her elbow down his neck, hearing a satisfying crack. Four down, six purple-brown abominations to go.

Her odds hadn't improved much, all things considered.

A few kicks told her all she needed to know about these Juin people; she wouldn't be able to take them down, immense physical strength be damned. These people's skin was made out of rock, if rock was more flexible and less easy to shatter. She had to rely on something else than her strength... Well, for the second time today, being able to perform Genjutsus instead of breaking them would have been nice.

A claw grazed her shoulder, sending a sharp pain through her arm, as she had tried dodging three attacks at once and missed a fourth. Dammit. At least nothing important had been cut. And at least they seemed less interested at chasing down Naruto and more interested in taking her down first, giving her more room to maneuver in more distance to the door. Okay. That was good.

Then someone grew a thorny whip from his arm, catching her by surprise and creating a significant gash across her own abdomen.

The pain almost made her pass out then and there, but she had enough of a mind to evade the next lash and start healing herself a little; it was bothering her too much to keep her focus. Notably, at the second she was clear of the whip, someone's spiky knee was jammed into her spine, luckily not breaking anything. Yet. And then the whip hit her square across the other arm as she was cowering on the ground, still healing. Then the laughter and the kicking started. Oh god.

She had to come up with something _quick_ or all they'd ever find of her was a kicked-to death, whipped up corpse with battle torn clothing from the thorns, and she had imagined a slightly more dignified way to go.

She managed to keep evading the whip some more, as the kicks did significantly less damage. Maybe crack a rib or two. Then the room was shaken from an impact further down the corridor, and a bone-shattering scream.

Oh god.

That was Naruto.

 

Fortunately, she was not the only one whose bones where chilled by this; her assailants were also briefly thrown off track, giving her time to slip through their legs and get up on the other side. Luckily, they were focused on her again immediately, instead of now running towards the fighting noises luckily still emitting from further down. Okay. That was good. Neither of them were dead yet.

She had to get out of here _now_ , and somehow take down all these abominations first, or she would be done for, and soon... But...

Sakura looked around the room frantically to figure out a way to get that done. Hm... There were columns holding up the ceiling here... But not in the tunnels... So most likely, breaking them would make the ceiling come down, but not cause a total cave in. And even if it did, did she have any better options?

The answer lashed her across the legs almost immediately after thinking that. She bit back a cry of pain and instead drew her tanto and managed to catch the whip, pinning it to the ground. Hearing that bastard cry out in pain was the most satisfying sound yet.

Now she had to figure out a way to make them all come as close to the center of the room as possible, for maximum impact. Immobilizing them first would be a plus...

She drew one of her poisoned Kunais and sliced it up the whip, hoping it was connected to the bloodstream of her opponent, before running towards the whole bunch again. This time, she didn't care much about evading anything at first, just making sure she sliced everyone with her kunai at least once, then twice, blocking out the pain as well as she could. There were more important things going on.

She had to get each of them three times, switching Kunais for a higher dosage of poison per slash, before the paralysis kicked in. With regular humans, one slash usually took them out cold. She was starting to get the appeal of this kind of power, even if it did make you look incredibly creepy. And forget your actual target. Oh well.

In the end, their movements got sloppy, and then stopped completely. With a normal human, that would last up to an hour. With this bunch, she probably had about ten minutes max.

Even though it wouldn't break anything, kicking them still sent them flying if they couldn't block, as she had hoped, since it made getting the six Juin users into the middle of the room so much easier. When they were all assorted somewhere between the columns, the real fun began. Sakura ran towards the first column, up to the ceiling and gave it an inquisitive punch. It crumbled a tiny little bit, and that was close to a column. Okay. She ran along the ceiling, up to the middle between the columns, and slightly, just enough to make a little dust come down through tiny cracks, punched it once more. Perfect.

Under her, the Juin users were starting to shiver. Damn, that meant their paralysis was already weakening. She needed to get her time frames straight. No matter; Sakura ran along the ceiling to the second column, the one farther away from the door she needed to go through to get to Naruto and Sasuke-kun, and started kicking it down as she went, only slightly; she still had to make it back through the room, after all. Dirt was steadily trickling down from the ceiling now, the column ached. She paid it no mind. Only when she reached the other column did she finally use her whole strength to completely destroy it right at the bottom.

Nothing happened.

Some of her opponents were slowly crawling back towards her, or maybe towards the entrance where they would be save if something did happen, so she did the sensible thing; run for it. When she had almost passed the room, an earsplitting shattering sound signified the breaking of the second column, and with a deep groan that shook her to her core, the ceiling came down, first slowly, with a steady trickle of dirt raining down into the room, then faster and faster, crumbling to large pieces of debris, burrowing the six Juin users underneath them, until the entire room was filled with stone and dust and a surprising amount of mud, judging from the smell.

Sakura couldn't tell for sure; she was cowering in the next corridor, halfway to another fork in the road, covering her ears from the noise and shielding her face from the dust and debris coming her way. When the noise had died down, and she could be reasonably sure that nothing else would cave in, she got up again, staring at the purple-brownish arm transformed into a whip reaching out of the pile of debris that had formerly been the hall, and whose owner she had just crushed to death.

Breathing heavily, bleeding out of several cuts and gashes and whatever it was the claws and kicks had done to her, her head dizzy from blood loss and adrenaline, she turned around, facing the fork. Which way had her boys gone? Then she heard sizzling noises a muffled scream coming from one way, and the choice was clear.

 

How she made it all the way to the next hall, she had no clue. Several times she feared the narrow walls would swallow her whole or come down as well. Two times she staggered so much, she had to hold on to the walls for support. They didn’t feel very supportive, especially after what she had just done.

When Sakura finally made it to the gigantic room, lit only by torches as well, the first thing she saw was blood. There was a lot of blood. Then there was Naruto, lying in all the blood. He had a hole in his chest. Her gut clenched. Her breath hitched. She’d have run to him, but she didn’t trust her legs.

_No, no, stay calm, the hole is in the right side of the chest. He lives. He’s gonna be okay. You can make him okay again._

Then she saw Sasuke-kun. Or rather, the hole he had in his shoulder. At least she presumed it was a hole, since she’d seen what Naruto could do, and she wanted to think he’d at least gotten Sasuke a little.

Blood was squirting through his fingers, as he tried to make his way towards the entrance she was standing in. No good. Blood loss would knock him out soon. With no one around but her, he’d die. Naruto would die first, but Sasuke-kun would, too.

“Out of my way,” he… Not quite coughed. He coughed up a lot of blood while saying it, but the actual sound he made was more like… Gurgling. Not good. Lung damaged. Blood in lung. Hard to get out. Not impossible, but it took some time.

Sasuke-kun staggered towards her, as if she was no threat. She probably wasn’t. She was figuring out how to heal both of them right now. She really meant no further harm. There was so much blood already.

He was beside her now. She hadn’t moved. He really wanted to get away? He wanted to get away. _He wanted to get away_!

Anticipating it about as much as he did, she rammed her fist into his stomach. He keeled over on her arm, throwing up blood and other things she narrowly avoided. But he wasn’t getting away.

 

 _Not today_.

 


	4. A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In case nobody noticed, the chapter titles are also song titles. Some of the songs actually relate to what's going on. Others simply have titles that sound neat and kind of fitting. So far it has been mostly the latter. The chapter titles also serve to give you some insight into my questionable taste of music. And subtlety. That, especially.

 

[I’ve Got] A Dark Alley And A Bad Idea [That Says You Should Shut Your Mouth]

 

Somehow, she managed to drag Sasuke’s limp body through all the blood towards where Naruto was lying, and even to at least close the hole in his lung in the process. There wasn’t that much blood in it. He’d be coughing it up for some time, though. But right now, he wasn’t important. He wasn’t dying. She propped him up against a wall where she could see him, in case he woke up. She doubted it. Too much blood.

She turned over Naruto. Yes. Hole was on the right side of his chest, he was still alive. Hastily, she cut open his shirt to have better access to the wound, and briefly noticed the seal on his stomach. That was still odd, but she really had better things to do than worry about it. Sasuke hadn’t simply pierced his lung; Naruto’s entire right lung wing should have collapsed judging by the damage, but it hadn’t. In fact, she could feel it healing, slowly, way too slowly, but healing on its own, due to a strange kind of chakra flowing through him.

That was _really_ odd.

It also made her job easier, so she wouldn’t complain. This time, she actually made the effort to extract all of the blood from his lungs while healing them, mainly because she didn’t have to damage additional tissue to do so. Really, the fact that she could clearly feel Naruto’s heart still beating and had been able to detect that his brain was still working was amazing.

And not just because detecting brainwaves usually wasn’t her thing.

The one time she had healed Naruto before, just a few hours ago, she hadn't noticed this... Force inside him. Or the strange chakra. Though all things considered, she'd _seen_ it before occasionally... And judging by where it was located, the weird seal definitely had something to do with it.

She had to remind herself that this really wasn’t the time and the place to analyze that curiosity. The only thing she had to worry about right now was getting both him and Sasuke out of life threatening condition and somewhere maybe a little more sheltered... Sasuke had been headed to another exit before, so there had to be another one in that direction besides the one she had just blocked by collapsing the hall. So at least they weren't stuck down here... Hopefully.

Naruto's lungs were closed up and working again in what definitely was no time at all considering the damage; she had fixed lungs a few times before, but the damage had always been less severe, and the procedure had taken significantly longer. Well then. It seemed like Naruto was to be her new favorite patient.

He was still bleeding from several cuts and had burns all over, but none of those were any kind of threat to him, especially since the weird healing force inside of him was still going strong, so Sakura returned her attention to Sasuke, whose wounds were less severe all around, but since he lacked Naruto's regenerative abilities, a bigger concern of hers right now.

While Naruto's wounds were mostly cuts and burns, besides the hole in his lung that had most likely been caused by a chidori, Sasuke's damage took the form of bruises and broken bones, a testament to Naruto's fighting style which took more after her own, as long as he kept the rasengan out of it. Which was most likely what had caused the hole in Sasuke's shoulder.

All things considered, Sasuke aiming for a vital area where Naruto hadn't was... disturbing. But neither entirely unexpected nor something she wanted to think about right now.

Instead, she set and healed three ribs of Sasuke's, which had been either broken or at least a little cracked, one of them causing additional damage to his lung, as if that was necessary. She also noticed that his stomach walls were damaged quite a bit, which was probably the result of her own punch, but nothing she couldn't heal as well.

However, Sasuke's body was way worse at dealing with this damage than Naruto's; she could already sense a fever settling in, so it would be a good while before he was in any shape to run away from them again. Which was a good thing, she supposed.

 

And at least nobody here was going to die on her watch.

 

That being out of the way, she moved on to some more practical problems; how to get two unconscious boys to somewhere a little less exposed in this underground maze. Unfortunately, this was not a problem she was trained to deal with. She had no idea where she was, where to go and how to avoid being found. Especially since she had no idea where potential threats could be coming from; and wouldn't it be better to get back to the surface all things considered? According to the... People she'd crushed... The fighting up there was already done, so it should be relatively save... But carrying two unconscious boys who she'd both pretty much brought back from the brink of death just a few minutes ago didn't occur to her as a very good idea. She'd have to wait for at least one of them to wake up first. God dammit, why did Pakkun have to dissolve once the fighting started?

"Sakura-san?"

The quiet voice, barely more than a whisper, made her jump backwards from where Sasuke was sort of sitting, and reach for the tanto that wasn't at her thigh anymore. Luckily, she didn't need it, as on the other side of the hall, in a doorway leading even further into this goddamn hide-out-maze-whatever, stood Hinata, looking as though she might faint from seeing all the blood that was still on the floor.

"Hinata!" She exclaimed, louder than was advisable under the circumstances. "What are you doing here? How did you find us?"

"I... Saw you were in trouble..." Hinata was still fixated on the sea of blood Naruto in particular was lying in. "So I... Well... Wanted to help." She took one tentative step into the room, but flinched when she stepped into the first puddle of blood. "Will... Will they be okay?"

"Oh, yes, I think so," Sakura assured her, immensely relieved she didn't have to deal with this on her own anymore. "And don't worry; neither of them is bleeding out anymore."

"You are," Hinata pointed out. Sakura looked down on herself. Oh, yeah. Right. There were the nasty cuts she'd gotten from the Juin people, a few whip lashes, and one of her ribs was probably cracked, too, but nothing major. She didn't even feel the pain right now, probably because of too much adrenaline.

"Ah, don't worry about me, I'll be fine," she dismissed Hinata. "How far is the exit from here?"

"It takes a while," Hinata approached slowly, eyes still transfixed on the blood surrounding Naruto. "But I wouldn't try to leave right now. We're under attack from Kusa ninjas. And rumor has it Taki is coming for us, as well. They already attacked another division somewhere but were defeated. But most of their strength is supposed to be coming here."

"Oh god..." Sakura tried doing the math in her head, but her head was too fuzzy for numbers right now. "That's not good. And we're in no condition to fight our way out... Does anybody know you're here?"

"Not yet..." Hinata started squirming where she was standing. "I'm kind of acting without orders... But I just couldn't... I mean..." She looked away, clearly uncomfortable.

"It's okay, I get it," Sakura tried to comfort her. And really, as little as she knew about Hinata, her behavior around Naruto had always been pretty obvious to her. And never before had she been so thankful for that. "And I'll put in a word with Tsunade for you so you won't get punished. Now, can you help me find a place that's kind of sheltered and where we won't be found immediately if more people find their way in?"

"Uhm..." Hinata activated her bloodline limit and scanned the area for a bit. "There's a hollow wall not too far from here that will fit all of us. Looks like a very simple opening mechanism, too."

"Awesome." Sakura got back on her feet and wiped her hands on her clothes. Not that it was particularly efficient; her thorough coating of dirt and blood that mostly wasn't hers would have given every medic nin a heart attack under normal circumstances, but those didn't really apply anymore. "So how do we get everyone there without leaving behind too much of a trace to follow?"

 

In the end, they just carried the boys over as they were, and then sacrificed Hinata's jacket, by far the cleanest garment between the four of them, for wiping the blood stains that followed them. Of course, any half-assedly skilled tracking ninja ever would be able to find them anyways if they just put their mind to it, but she didn't want to make it unnecessarily easy for them. Just for her own peace of mind.

Hinata then insisted on at least bandage up Sakura's wounds, or those that were still bleeding, as the blood loss would get to her eventually. She also made Hinata clean her wounds first, since she didn't intend to court disaster any more than they already were. Then the two of them got busy treating the more minor wounds of the boys, like applying ointments and Band-Aids to Naruto's burns, which were hardly even existent anymore, and keeping Sasuke's fever down.

Sakura couldn't help but admire the silent efficiency Hinata showed once she gave her something to do. Once she'd gotten over all the blood and was quite sure Naruto would be okay (not that this was explicitly said, but Sakura _knew_ ), she did everything Sakura told her to and did so well. Her bandages weren't half bad, if a little loose at first, and she treated Naruto's burns like a pro. The girl would have made an awesome medic had she not been blessed with about every other set of skills a ninja could ask for. Her attitude would have fit right in. Oh well.

Hinata herself also looked hardly any worse for wear; true, before being used as a blood sponge, her jacket had been torn in places, and the rest of her clothing looked a little worn, but she had no injuries besides a few scratches, nothing to show that she'd been fighting in an all-out war for almost two days by now.

The perks of being high born and talented, it seemed.

 

They remained silent and waited for something to happen, besides Naruto's snoring showing that he had slipped from unconsciousness to sleep, which was a good sign, and Sasuke occasionally coughing up the blood still stuck in his lungs while burning up with fever, which wasn't.

In the hours that followed, they shared soldier pills and water supplies and the occasional worried look, but spoke no more words. Sakura had never really talked much to Hinata. Well, Hinata didn't talk much, period, but even back in the academy where they'd spent the better part of their days in a room together, they had never interacted much. Or at all. Sakura had been dragged along with Ino being her social butterfly self so they'd never spoken beyond what was necessary for shared assignments, as they didn't exactly share a circle of friends. Most people had been too intimidated by Hinata's last name to actually be friends with her.

And ever since Sakura had been put on a team with Naruto... Well, Hinata wasn't quite as overt in her underlying resentment as, uhm, a lot of other people had been because of her, uhm, other team mate, but again, Sakura just _knew_.

And she was thankful for every second she didn't have to spend down in this maze on her own.

 

It took three hours for Naruto to finally wake up.

"Ouch," he complained, even before he opened his eyes, making Hinata, who was sitting across from him, jump with surprise. "Why do I feel dead?"

"Because you should be," Sakura explained, trying to sound strict, but not quite succeeding in keeping the relief out of her voice. "Your right lung wing kind of collapsed because someone stuck his hand through it."

"Hey, Sakura-chan," he greeted her with a lazy grin on his face. "Oh, and Hinata-chan, too. How did you get here?"

"Using her eyes," Sakura explained. "And she saved all of our asses."

"Did we at least get...? Oh, there he is!" Naruto's grin grew even wider spotting Sasuke, making one of the Band-Aids come off his face. Sakura rolled her eyes and reapplied it, not quite as gentle as was proper with a patient who'd almost had his lung collapse a few hours prior, but she figured if that hadn't killed him, she'd never be able to kill him no matter how hard she tried, so what difference did a little rough handling make.

"You seriously need to learn how to dodge close quarter attacks like that, it's embarrassing," she lectured him. He gave a wheezing laugh.

"It's hard to dodge when I'm trying to hit him with a rasengan!" Naruto argued. "I did hit him, didn't I?"

"Yes, in the shoulder." Sakura pointed at the hole in Sasuke's shirt where Naruto had hit him. "You damaged his lung as well, but not nearly as badly as yours. Unfortunately, Sasuke-kun doesn't have you thick-headedness, so he actually needs to recover from heavy injuries." Pointing out that there was a weird, healing chakra force living in his abdomen under a seal in front of Hinata didn't quite strike her as the right thing to do in the situation.

"Serves him right," Naruto said. "Bastard attacked me when I just wanted to talk to him! No manners, I tell you."

"Well, I told you, you need to _make_ people listen first." Sakura had to stifle a laugh, which was quite a bit easier when looking at Hinata, who was looking at her feet in what seemed to be... Hurt? Yeah... Probably that.

"So what are we waiting for?" Naruto asked and tried to get up. "Let's grab the bastard and get out of here! He'll be okay, right?"

"Yes, but you won't if you don't sit down immediately and rest some more!" Sakura snapped at him.

"But I feel fine!" Naruto claimed, completely ignoring the way his knees buckled and how off his balance was, judging by his staggering.

"Th-they're still fighting up there!" Hinata protested. "And right now, y-you're really in no condition t-to make it out there, and Sakura-san isn't, either, so at least waiting out until Sasuke-san regains consciousness, or we receive further notice is the best option we have!" She explained tentatively, looking at her feet.

"Oh." Naruto sat down again, or more like slumped down as his knees gave in. "Okay then." He looked around almost complacently. "So why are we still fighting? Last thing I knew, Oto was kinda done for."

"They were done for," Hinata confirmed. "Only Orochimaru was still fighting, and we had strict orders to stay out of that battle..."

"Aw, I wish I was there!" Naruto interrupted her. "I saw them fight the last time around, it was so awesome! Sorry, what were you saying?"

"Well..." Hinata was almost sinking into the wall behind her under Naruto's expectant gaze. "We were attacked by Kusa ninjas just when we thought it was over. Rumor has it the other squads got ambushed, too. By other minor villages."

"Dammit!" Naruto positively shrank into himself. "And you're sure there's nothing we can do to help?"

"Th-the situation was under control when I... Left," Hinata explained further. "And no, you're really in no shape to fight."

"Ugh, I hate this!" Naruto complained, and kicked the still unconscious Sasuke, who was sitting across from him. "Wake up already!"

"Wrong way of thinking," Sakura warned him. " _You_ should go back to sleep. The more you sleep, the better rested you will be, and the sooner you will be able to fight again."

"Whatever you say." Naruto rolled his eyes, but obediently curled up into a ball to sleep again. "Just make sure we don't lose anyone while I'm out."

"Not on my watch," Sakura assured him.

 

* * *

 

Naruto had been asleep again for two hours, and Hinata had taken over keeping watch for Sakura as she dozed off a little as well. Things had been draining for her too, for sure. But then she was tentatively shaken and woke up.

"Uhm..." Hinata seemed quite uncomfortable about something, her Byakugan activated.

"What is it?" Sakura asked, alarmed. "Is someone coming? Enemies?"

"Not really," Hinata glanced aside. "Just... Neji-nii-san, Kiba-kun and Shino-kun are on their way here..."

"To get you?" Sakura guessed. "So you didn't even tell people you were leaving?" Hinata blushed in answer. Sakura rolled her eyes. "Great. This should be entertaining at least."

And sure enough, about ten minutes later she heard a voice through the stone wall that separated their hideout from the main floors of the cave.

“So here we are, once again, potentially risking our lives while chasing this bastard! Is anyone seeing a pattern here?”

“We are chasing after Hinata-sama,” another, much more subdued voice answered, sounding significantly more annoyed. “And nobody forced you to accompany us, Inuzuka.”

“Also, the next enemy unit is miles away,” a third voice, deeper and calmer than the other two, added. “Everything else down here is dead.”

“Even worse!” The first voice continued complaining. “That means nobody can swoop in here for a last minute rescue!”

“Which we won’t need,” the second voice assured him.

“I don’t know, man,” the first voice continued. “Have you _seen_ the freaky stuff the guys living here came up with?”

“Yes, I have,” the second person answered. “I was there, actually, and not in need of a rescue.”

“Dude, you just fought a guy with a bunch of spiders!” The first person reminded him rather undignified. “I had to fight two guys sharing a body, and then possessing _my_ body. I had a second head growing out of my shoulder! _Excuse me_ for being freaked out!”

“Could you guys keep it down a little bit?” Sakura finally interrupted them, sliding open the wall that kept them hidden between corridors. “We’re trying to hide here!”

“I’m just trying to sleep,” Naruto contributed, who had woken up once the voices started getting closer. “Don’t really care about anyone finding us; we’d kick their asses in a matter of seconds.”

“Not with you being out of chakra like that, we wouldn’t,” Sakura grumbled, gesturing for Kiba, Neji and Shino to join them. Their little hideout was getting rather cozy.

“Are you alright?” Neji immediately asked Hinata, who was sitting in a corner across from Naruto and hadn’t said a word ever since she’d announced the boys were coming for them.

“Yes,” she answered. “I’m sorry for running off like that.”

“Did you at least get the bastard?” Kiba asked and looked around curiously. “Ah, there he is! What happened to him?”

“I knocked him out,” Sakura answered flatly, closing the entrance behind them.

“You knocked him out,” Kiba repeated, dumbfounded.

“I knocked him out,” Sakura repeated, nodding.

“ _You_ knocked him out,” Kiba repeated, again, not looking any smarter.

“Yes, she made that quite clear,” Neji interjected before the exchange could happen a third time.

“And it was awesome!” Naruto added, grinning wildly and making that one Band-Aid come off of his face. “Ooops.”

“I got it,” Hinata said quietly and reapplied it with somewhat more care than Sakura had earlier.

“Thanks!” Naruto grinned.

Behind her, Sakura felt at least two of the three newcomers tensing. Oh, boy. This was going to be fun.

“…You weren’t even conscious for that,” she reminded Naruto in an attempt to distract them all.

“Maybe not, but the thought of you knocking him out is awesome enough on its own!” Naruto argued, this time more mindful of his Band-Aids.

“Anyway.” Sakura turned around to face the three boys for a quite necessary change of topic. “What’s going on out there? I heard Kusa had ambushed us for some reason, and the other divisions were attacked, too. Do you have any news there?”

“Yes,” Neji answered. “It seems that the division sent to Oto proper was attacked by a meager force from Shimo Gakure, which they overcame and hurried here to aid us immediately, but ran into a force from Taki that was planning to fight us here as well. The western host was attacked by joined forces from Ame and Ishi Gakure, with another division from Ame later joining Kusa in attacking us here. The western host has since joined us almost completely, while the eastern division from Oto proper and Taki are still battling on Taki's grounds, but should be done there in a few hours.”

"Why is everyone attacking us?" Naruto asked bewildered.

"Seems like Orochimaru had friends in high places," Kiba assumed. "Or that's just what we guessed. Weird, considering he stole his freaks from all of them." He threw a nasty glance at Sasuke before settling down between him and Hinata. "So what do we do now?"

"Wait," Sakura decided.

"Are you sure?" Kiba didn't seem convinced and poked Sasuke next to him. "I'd say wrap him up and get out of here as long as he can't fight back. Will save us all a lot of trouble, I tell you."

"He _is_ bound, isn't he?" Neji asked, eyeing Sasuke's unconscious body with disapproval. "And you _did_ break his fingers to prevent him from performing any hand seals to break his bonds, didn't you?"

"What I did was knocking him out and then repairing a damaged lung," Sakura answered sharply. "What I did was treat the fever that broke out from sustaining this much damage, and keep him alive. So no, restraining him did not occur to me, especially since even after waking up, he will be in no condition to fight back anyways."

"At least tie up his hands," Neji scoffed. "This is a major security breach. I thought your goal was to get him back to the village. Or does that include giving him a fighting chance once he's subdued?"

"It mainly includes getting him back alive," Sakura shot back. "And tying back his bands when there is still blood in his lung that needs to be coughed up is not advisable in this situation."

Neji rolled his eyes.

"Tie up Uchiha's hands," he then instructed Shino to his left. "And do it front of his body, if tying them up behind is going to be so health endangering."

"Calm down already, he's unconscious!" Naruto protested. "And if Sakura-chan says he doesn't need to be tied up, then that's that. She's the medic here, remember?"

"I am not taking orders from you, in any case," Shino said, completely unaffected. "None of us besides Haruno-san and Uzumaki-san are on an official mission, and you do not outrank me."

"Hey, I'd still do it," Kiba offered his two cents. "I mean, sure, he's unconscious now, but who knows what sort of freaky things Orochimaru has done to his body in the meantime, so he might grow wings and mind-blast us all once he wakes up, injuries be damned!"

"He already does that," Naruto said darkly. "Grow wings, I mean. It's creepy."

"Woah." Kiba shuffled back from Sasuke unconscious body, shoving poor Hinata into the corner. "Actual wings? Like, ones for flying?"

"Kind of?" Naruto scratched his head. "I mean, it got hard to tell if he was flying or jumping, and in that hall, there was not much room for flying anyways..."

"The one that collapsed?" Kiba asked. "Did he do that?"

"Oh!" Naruto just seemed to realize something. "So that's what that noise was!"

"Yeah, there was like, this big cave in, that completely blocked the way here from the main entrance," Kiba explained. "So you don't know what happened there, either?"

"I made the hall collapse," Sakura informed them. "But this really isn't - "

" _You_ made the hall collapse?" Kiba asked, staring at her dumbfounded, still half on Hinata's lap, who seemed used to this somehow.

" _Inuzuka_ ," Neji growled, dangerously annoyed by the turn the conversation had taken. "Not the point."

"We had a point?" Sakura wasn't quite sure if Naruto was playing dumb for Sasuke, or if he actually had been confused by the conversation. Well, as much as it displeased her, she had to admit herself that not tying up Sasuke was a major risk, and she really had no nerve to argue this out with Neji.

"Sort of," she therefore relented, pulled string from her supply pouch and tied Sasuke's hand up in front of him. Then she checked his fever; it was already declining slightly, which was technically a good sign, but also a little... Worrying. No normal human being should have been able to recover so quickly. She kind of accepted it with Naruto, since whatever force she had felt there that was keeping him alive was definitely _not_ human, but nothing about Sasuke's chakra and vital functions seemed off, except for his quick recovery rate.

Seeing what she was doing, Neji relaxed visibly, and sat down next to the entrance, assuming the head position as she noted with disdain. Someone had a serious leadership complex there. Sure, they hadn't officially elected a leader, but since this was a two people mission to begin with, it should have gone without saying that if they had a leader, it would be either Naruto or her. Or both. This was _their_ mission, and _their_ team here, for god's sake. She shot a glare at Neji, before sitting back down between Naruto and Shino, who had been the only sort of cooperative one in their quarrel so far. Well, Naruto tried, at least.

"So where did you leave Akamaru?" She asked Kiba, who had finally backed away from poor Hinata, to distract from their previous conversation.

"Out there fighting," Kiba answered with a shrug. "He's a little too big for dungeon crawling anyways, and since I was with Shino and Lady Hyuuga here, his tracking skills weren't exactly needed."

"Neither were yours," Neji pointed out, apparently ignoring the nickname Kiba had bestowed him with as well as he could.

"Well sorry for being worried about my teammate!" Kiba said indignantly, pulling Hinata closer to him. "And the last time I saw you alone with her, you kind of tried to kill her, so I had to tag along!"

"Can we all just calm down and remember that we're supposed to be _hiding_ right now?" Sakura injected before the conversation could escalate. Again.

"There's nothing to hide from," Neji pointed out. "There is nobody down here besides us."

"And surely, nobody can ever find the entrances you have used to find us down here." Sakura rolled her eyes. "It's universally known that all these other villages attacking us have wildly inferior tracking skills, and nobody would want to come after Sasuke-kun anyways, am I right?"

"They _do_ have inferior tracking skills," Neji scoffed. "At least compared to some."

"Can somebody knock _him_ out, please?" Kiba demanded. "He's being totally uncooperative and endangers the mission by provoking his teammates!"

"This is not our mission to begin with," Shino pointed out quietly. "If anything, that call lies with Haruno-san or Uzumaki-san." He was slowly becoming Sakura's favorite person.

"Okay, what the hell is even going on here anymore?" Naruto demanded, visibly irritated by the general situation. "Why are you all arguing?"

"Mostly because Lady Hyuuga is being a bitch," Kiba explained, shrugging.

"And challenging your authority," Shino spelled it out for him.

"...I have authority?" Naruto looked pleased by this.

"Not exactly," Sakura said, severely annoyed by all of this. "This is our mission with no designated leader, and Neji is trying to claim that spot despite not being part of it."

"Because I'm clearly the most qualified here," Neji defended himself, crossing his arms. "You didn't even think of tying up someone who is a highly dangerous prisoner."

"Because he poses no immediate threat due to his medical condition," Sakura reminded him sharply. "I don't care about anything else in this petty power struggle you insist on heaving, but leave the medical evaluations up to _me_ , because in that field, I most definitely _do_ outrank everyone here."

"C-can't we just all cooperate?" Hinata suggested quietly, getting involved in the conversation for the first time. "There is no immediate danger, and no need to fight about things right now, is there? So... Why are we even doing this?"

"Exactly what she said," Naruto agreed. "From where I stand, things are going pretty well. We got Sasuke, nobody's dying, and we're not under attack, so why is it even important who has what kind of authority here? Well, except for the medical stuff, I agree, and that's definitely Sakura's thing." He pointed towards the hole in his jacket and chest where the Chidori had gone through him. "She sort of made my lung not collapse after it's been run through completely, and the bastard is still alive as well, so, uhm, yeah. Let her decide on that and like, decide together on everything else."

"Thanks." Sakura had to remember that trick; maybe if she started hardly saying anything at all, people would automatically start listening to what she had to say. This was the second time Hinata had managed that since they'd been down here. "And for further procedures I'd like to suggest that we just wait in relative silence until we either receive further notice, are under attack or Sasuke-kun is stable for transportation again, which won't be until a few more hours. All in favor?"

Since there weren't actually any other options, she wasn't all that surprised that all were indeed in favor, but oh well. Small victories and all that.

"Awesome!" Naruto commented on the vote, grinning. "So now you all behave and let me sleep and then we can get out of here!"

At least someone was kind of optimistic about their situation, Sakura mused. Oh well. Things were going exceptionally well for their circumstances, actually. Her company right now was exhausting, but at least they weren't almost completely unprotected anymore. Silver linings. Silver linings everywhere.

 

* * *

 

Sakura hadn't even realized she'd dozed off until she vaguely felt her mind being invaded. Again.

 _Forehead girl, where the hell are you?_ , Ino's voice in her head woke her up non-too gently.

 _On that secret mission I'm not supposed to tell you about_. Answering was always weird. It was not like Ino could read all of her thoughts, oh dear god that'd be creepy, it was more like she was talking to her main stream on consciousness, so Sakura had to consciously think back to answer. And that was hard when you were sort of asleep.

 _Sleeping on the job? Geez, your work ethic really sucks lately._ Getting insulted by your main consciousness also wasn't the most pleasant experience Sakura had ever had. Oh well.

 _If you knew what I've been through the last few hours, you wouldn't be talking like that. Or thinking. Or whatever,_ she half-heartedly tried to defend herself. And she truly was exhausted, now seemingly even more so than before she had dozed off.

 _Well, then I hope you got Sasuke-kun back at least_ , Ino scoffed at her. And Sakura was wide-awake.

 _How do you know about that?_ She asked, though maybe that hadn't been her smartest move, all things considered.

 _Well, I'm working at the command center and was told to ask you about this, so that kinda helps_ , Ino answered, sounding smug.

 _Do you happen to have any news or instructions for us?_ If she had been instructed to invade her mind, there was probably a reason for that. And that reason hopefully included further instructions to get out of there as soon as possible.

 _Yeah, well, the fighting up here calmed down enough for you to get back up here, provided you can still walk_ , Ino answered. _Hinata and her bodyguards_ are _with you, right?_

 _They sure are_ , Sakura confirmed. _So everything's okay up there?_

 _For the most part. Losses were way less than anticipated and the attacks from all those minor villages were fought off. Orochimaru is still fighting, though, but we were told to get back home with everyone as soon as we got you back up. That has probably more to do with several Hyuuga people annoying Kakashi for the last few hours than with your popularity, though._ Sakura felt Ino hesitating; another weird feature, she could tell that there was more to come, even though the voice was quiet. _Did you manage to get Sasuke-kun?_

 _Yes_ , Sakura answered. _He's still unconscious and recovering from severe injuries, but he's gonna be okay. And we'll bring him back. It's not like he can do anything about it right now, anyways._

 _That's... Good, I guess._ Ino's relief was bleeding over in Sakura's consciousness, making her feel way better about the whole situation than she probably should. But it sure was a nice feeling. _So hurry up and get here, before somebody else decides to randomly attack us._

 _Will do_ , Sakura promised. _Now get out of my head._

She finally opened her eyes to take in her surroundings. Naruto had his head on her shoulder and was sleeping peacefully. Sasuke across from her had a few fresh looking specks of blood on his shirt that probably came from coughing, but seemed to remain unconscious. That was good; the blood was getting out if his lungs and he still couldn't fight back.

Kiba next do him was nervously drumming with his fingers on his own knees, Hinata to his left was asleep as well.

To her own left sat Shino, and telling whether he was asleep or not was kinda hard considering the sun glasses and his generally quiet behavior. Neji, still sitting at the head, was wide awake however, scouting the area with his Byakugan and frowning.

"It seems like we just received further orders," Sakura announced, softly shaking Naruto awake and away from her shoulder. "Ino just talked to me."

"Did she," Neji scoffed, clearly not quite convinced. "So?"

"The fighting has calmed down enough for us to move back to the surface," she recapitulated, leaning forward to check up on Sasuke's condition. The fever was almost gone, and he was actually asleep instead of unconscious. Definitely stable for transportation, anyways.

"Alright!" Naruto yawned, his enthusiasm unstifled. "So how do we do this?"

"How far to the closest exit?" Sakura asked Neji.

"A ten minute walk when transporting someone," he answered. "We emerge in the forest, but close to a clearing where a major battle has taken place, and relatively far from where Tsunade-sama and Jiraiya-sama are still fighting Orochimaru. No hostile shinobi in sight right now."

"Perfect." She readjusted Sasuke's restraints, making them tighter, just in case he woke up during transportation and didn't feel too pleased with his current situation. Which he probably wouldn't. Good thing he was still mostly out of chakra, really. She also bound his feet in such a way that if he woke up, he could walk on his own, but not run away. Again, just in case.

"So how _do_ we do this?" Kiba repeated Naruto’s question. "Just take him and carry him outta here?"

"Got a better idea?" Sakura countered. "Carrying duties will fall to you, me and Shino, by the way, since we need Neji and Hinata on the look-out and I won't let Naruto put any pressure on his lungs."

"I'm fine!" Naruto protested. "Seriously! Hardly even hurts anymore!"

"See, you said 'hardly'," Sakura pointed out dryly. "So it still does hurt, and as long as that's so, you are not putting any unnecessary pressure on anything, got it?"

"Fine, whatever." He rolled his eyes dramatically. "Is that what it's like to have a mom?"

"Depends on the mom," Kiba informed him darkly, roughly grabbing Sasuke by the arm to follow Neji and Shino outside. "Mine's more forceful, and not as nice."

"Gentle!" Sakura chided him, taking Sasuke's other arm while dragging him out. "He's still sick and recovering from injuries, okay? No rough handling!"

"Whatever." Now it was Kiba's turn to dramatically roll his eyes.

Sakura hadn't even noticed how stuffy their little hiding place had become within the few hours they'd spent there, until she stepped out into the corridor, holding onto Sasuke's left arms, and breathed in something at least resembling fresh air for the first time since she'd brought down that hall. Ugh, that one would probably haunt her for the rest of her life.

 

 

 

%MCEPASTEBIN%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So after a chapter of sitting around and bitching, we will actually get to do exciting things in two weeks! Familiar characters will appear! Fights will be fought! A lot of violence will happen! An Sasuke will finally TALK TO PEOPLE! So stay tuned.


	5. Kill Your Heroes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This week, characters will appear (unless you blink and miss them), fights will be fought (briefly) and SASUKE WILL TALK TO PEOPLE!

Kill Your Heroes

 

Once they'd all stepped out of their cozy little hiding space, Neji took the lead, because of course he did, together with Shino, while Naruto and Hinata took the rear, and Sakura and Kiba were carrying Sasuke in the middle. That way, they'd get optimal protection from both sides in case of an ambush. Though granted, ambushing a Hyuuga was close to impossible to begin with, at least when they were on the look-out.

Half carrying, half dragging Sasuke along slowed them down significantly, but carrying him in any other way would have left both her and Kiba even less able to defend themselves if need be, and in their profession, paranoia was one of the first things they were taught. Also, these underground tunnels and halls and secret passaged made it really, _really_ easy for her to be paranoid right now.

They had barely made a few feet down the corridor when Neji stopped them.

"There's an ambush," he announced. "Waiting for us at the closest entrance. We have to change course."

"This way." Hinata gestured back to a recent fork in the corridors. "That's the way I came, and it's clear so far."

So they followed her lead for a while, until Sakura felt Sasuke tensing next to her. His head came up, and he was looking onwards with eyes still clouded from exhaustion, not quite able to make out his surroundings.

"Rise and shine, Sleeping Beauty!" Kiba greeted him, not without a slight hint of malice. Or, well, more than a hint.

"What the hell?" Sasuke glared at him, looking confused, and then tried to yank his arms free, to no avail. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Getting your sorry ass home," Kiba informed him. Sasuke tried shaking him off again, this time more violently, but was shaken by a fit of coughing up some blood for his efforts.

"Don't struggle," Sakura urged him, gently patting his arm, trying to calm him down. "You were badly injured and it won't do you any good, anyways."

"Let me go!" Sasuke barked, directing his death glare at her now. "I warn you, let me go immediately or..."

"I don't think you're in a position to issue warnings right now," Neji noted with a hint of smugness. "You are restrained, well-guarded, and in no condition to fight, so better give in immediately."

"Fuck you," Sasuke spat at him, struggling more and more, so that Sakura and Kiba now had to keep him from tripping himself as well, since is restraints left not much room to do so. She'd always been good at knotting. "As if you could take me on!"

"Dude, you got knocked out by Sakura and have been unconscious for hours," Kiba informed him. "I think we could all take you on, on our own and with one hand tied back right now."

"Sasuke, please!" Naruto now got involved. "We don't want to harm you; we just want to take you home!"

"I don't _want_ to go home!" Sasuke kindly informed them, since he obviously hadn't made this sentiment clear yet. "You can't make me!"

Sakura was a little taken aback by the lack of foresight he was showing here; he was still trying to shake Kiba and her off, despite the fact that that very clearly was not happening any time soon, but Sasuke didn't seem to realize that. Or how bad his situation actually was, all things considered; there simply was no way out for him right now, and one of the first things a shinobi learned was when to save his strength. Even from his perspective, fighting back _now_ really wasn't the smartest move. Once they were in the open field, maybe, or simply running off as soon as they trusted him not to, like, well, last time, would have been the smart thing to do.

But the Sasuke-kun she was currently holding onto for her, and more likely _his,_ dear life clearly wasn't interested in smart choices. Instead, he tried to trip Kiba, an act made incredibly subtle by the foot restraints he was wearing, and was accordingly easily blocked. Then he tried to elbow her, made close to impossible to perform effectively by the fact that she kind of was holding his elbow right now and therefore anticipated every movement he made with it.

"Stop fighting this!" Naruto demanded, stepping forwards and holding Sasuke by the shoulders. "There's no way out now, and you were injured! Don't do this to yourself!"

"How come you can walk then?" Sasuke countered. "You were injured worse than I was!"

"His regenerative abilities are higher than yours," Sakura informed him, still trying to calm him down. "The fact that you're both conscious right now is close to a miracle, really, lung damage usually takes ages to recover from..."

"What are you talking about?" Sasuke asked her disdainfully.

"Well..." She pointed towards the hole on his new, strangely revealing and sort of traditional looking outfit, and the scar underneath she had been in too much of a hurry to heal completely. "You took a Rasengan straight through the shoulder, which pierced your lung slightly, and you hit Naruto straight through the right lung wing, so..."

Sasuke just stared at her with suspicion.

"Yeah, she's a medic now," Naruto explained, grinning. "And not a half-bad one either, all things considered. Or we wouldn't be standing here."

"And she knocked you out," Kiba added, apparently quite keen on rubbing that little detail in, effectively enraging Sasuke even more, as he continued to fight back with new vigor.

"Talking won't get us anywhere," Neji noted. "We need to get moving."

"Well, carrying him isn't that easy when he's being like this," Kiba complained.

"Then knock him out again," Neji constructively suggested. "Or sedate him, or whatever will get the job done, just get on with it."

Sakura shoved the arm she was holding into Naruto's hands to fumble about in her pouch. She had something to cause paralysis, but she really didn't want to use that on someone still recovering from a lung injury. She also had a few things that would knock him out cold, but they were all kind of aggressive as well and not suited for him in his current shape. And she had two or three poisons with her that would probably kill him, so those were out, too.

She decided on the least aggressive anesthetic she had with her and showed it to Sasuke.

"This will put you to sleep," she announced. "Or we could just knock you unconscious again, if you'd prefer to be carried around like a sack of rice. But I think you and I both would prefer it if you walked yourself. It's your choice." She pulled a senbon out of her weapon's pouch and dipped it into the vial. That dosage of the anesthetic wouldn't really knock him out cold, but slow him down immensely regardless and make him a lot easier to handle.

"You wouldn't," Sasuke spat at her. Oh dear. He shouldn't have done that. Now he'd left her no choice, really. Though just punching him in the gut again sounded more and more appealing by the second...

Yet, she hesitated. She could feel Neji rolling his eyes, Kiba sneering and Naruto silently begging her not to do it, and she didn't want to, but...

She punched Sasuke in the gut. Not with full force, or as close to it as she had been able to, like when she had kept him from fleeing, but with enough force to make him bend over and cough up more blood, though not from any damage she caused. She grabbed his head while he was down, and bent down close enough for the strands of his spiky hair to tickle her nose.

"I would," she then whispered, so only he could hear. "Trust me, I would. I don't want to, I'd infinitely prefer it if you just walked on your own, but right now, there is close to nothing I would not do, if it meant getting you back home, do you understand?" She turned his head upwards, so that he was now glaring directly at her, their faces only inches apart. "In the last few hours, I've brought down a hall on six of those cursed seal bearers. I've stopped you from getting away again. I've kept you alive. I kept _Naruto_ alive, who you almost killed, and I put up with this bunch, which trust me, wasn't easy. And I've done it all for you. There is no way out for you right now, so please, _please_ show me just this little bit of gratitude and _walk on your own_. But never, _ever_ assume I wouldn't do whatever it takes to get you back."

She let go of him, not without gently wiping the coughed-up blood off his face, and stood up straight again. Sasuke followed her with his gaze, looking positively disturbed by what she had just said and done, but at least he wasn't fighting back anymore. Small victories.

She took Sasuke's arm from Naruto again and dragged him along, noticing that he was indeed walking on his own now, if a little reluctantly just because he could, but that didn't matter. What mattered now was getting out of here.

She felt everyone else staring at her, and asking the unspoken question of _How the hell did you do that?_ , but she wouldn't have had an answer even if they'd asked it aloud. She just did it, somehow, and it worked. Sort of.

"Oh dear..." Hinata said shortly before they had to take another turn.

"I don't like the sound of that," Kiba on Sasuke's other side snorted.

"The enemies trying to ambush us have gathered in front of the entrance we are now pursuing," Neji explained.

"The same people?" Naruto asked for clarification. "Are you sure? How did they know we changed course?"

"I don't know," Neji admitted. "One of them has a very strange chakra signature though, not unlike your own, so maybe that's how."

"Well, if they can sense our movements, then we can't really avoid them, can we?" Sakura surmised. "So what do we do?"

"Go back to the other exit," Neji decided. "We can't avoid a fight, and the terrain there is better suited for one. Unless we want to wait it out and have them attack us down here, but I believe most of us don't do well in close quarters. Especially not with a prisoner of ambiguous affiliation."

"He means Sasuke-kun might side with them," Sakura explained that term to Naruto. Sasuke himself had chosen the silent treatment as his form of rebellion against his captors. Not that it did him much good. "And yes, I agree, close quarters are to be avoided. How many are there?"

"Eighteen," Neji answered. Hinata nodded quietly. "We can take them on, of course, but the prisoner aspect makes it difficult to estimate."

"Well, if we can't avoid them anyways, let's just go take them on and see," Naruto suggested. "And I mean, once we're on the surface, there are Konoha shinobi everywhere, right? So at least we'll have some help if things go badly."

* * *

Ten minutes later, walking went quite a bit faster without having to drag Sasuke around, they had reached the exit, just as their opponents had, and had also developed a battle plan; should things really go too badly, Sakura and Kiba were to take Sasuke and run back down to the second entrance and try getting help from there. Sakura wasn't a big fan of the plan since she was the medic and battles had a tendency to go a lot better with one of those around, but Neji had also reminded her that advertising her status as a medic pretty much just painted a target on her. A big, neon colored and blinking one.

When Sasuke-kun, Kiba and her came up to the surface last, the others had already formed a defensive semi-circle, but no fighting had happened yet.

"There he comes!" A female voice announced.

The forehead protectors and clothing choices all around showed that the people waiting for them were Oto ninjas that apparently had escaped the battles so far. All of them looked positively enraged, except for the girl, looking no older than their little entourage was, her bright red hair providing a rare spot of color amongst the otherwise purple and black uniformity.

"Traitor!" Someone yelled at... Sasuke? It made no sense, but Sasuke was the only person they knew, so... what the hell?

"Kill him!" Someone else commanded, and they all started attacking.

"What the hell?!" She heard Naruto shout, not really paying attention who he was fighting at the moment, as she was too busy dodging incoming attacks while still holding onto Sasuke. "Why are you attacking him?"

"This is all his fault!" One of the Oto Nins explained. "Without him, Oto would still exist!"

Well. Hard to argue with that.

"But you promised not to hurt him!" The red haired girl had not joined the attack and looked as surprised at this turn of events as they were. "Please, you promised!"

She was nonchalantly backhanded into a tree for her pleas. Sakura lost track of what happened to her afterwards. She was too busy dodging attacks with only one free hand, as she didn't dare to let go of Sasuke.

"Oh fuck no," Kiba on Sasuke's other side moaned.

She followed his gaze. Oh fuck no. Cursed Seal bearer. Only one so far, but still.

"Not again!" She moaned, but was relieved as a small platoon of Narutos swarmed him, and Neji looked like he really wanted to fight the creature as well. Good for them. And her. And Kiba, who seemed like he really didn't want to reacquaint himself with the Juin and its effects on people, either. So instead, they just kept people away from Sasuke as well as they could while still holding onto him, shaking him quite a bit. Someone with a weaker stomach might have gotten sick from it, really.

"This is ridiculous," Sasuke informed them after a few minutes, by which he had taken up dodging _for_ them by crouching down at the right time or bending out of harm’s way; a quick glance showed Sakura that he had activated his Sharingan to help with that. And at least he was helping them, for now.

"I agree!" Kiba huffed, clawing at one opponent while trying to elbow another out of the way, getting cut up the arm for his efforts. "You should just take him and run!"

"And then the whole bunch follows me and I can't even protect myself because I'm too busy carrying him," Sakura countered. "No, thanks. I have a better idea."

And with that, she first used an elaborate kick to bring her three current opponents down to the floor, and then brought her heel down to cause a significant crack in the ground.

"Watch it!" Kiba warned her, almost falling into it.

"Sorry," she apologized and shoved Sasuke down into the crack up to the elbows, so he couldn't get out of it without assistance.

"What the hell?!" Sasuke complained, while Kiba had to bite back a laugh.

"Sorry!" Sakura apologized to him as well. "But we really can't risk you running off now!"

"These people are trying to kill _me_!" Sasuke pointed out. "At least cut me loose and give me a fighting chance!"

"I am your fighting chance!" Sakura replied, punching someone hopefully hard enough to make his nose rupture his brain, she couldn't quite tell, but at least he didn't get back up again, and that was all that mattered.

"I like my odds better when I can defend myself!" Sasuke argued from his hole in the ground. "At least cut lose my hands!"

"And how do I know this isn't just a set-up and once you are free, all these people will welcome you back with open arms?" She kicked someone into Kiba's area of responsibility, even though he seemed a little distracted by trying not to laugh, and jammed a Kunai into someone else's right trapezius, making their right arm incredibly painful to use.

"What the fuck happened to make you so paranoid?" Sasuke asked.

Wow. Really? Did he _really_ have to ask this? She shot him a disbelieving glance, and was just about to point out that maybe, getting knocked out from behind by someone she'd at least trusted not to harm her up to that point, and then getting left behind on a _bench_ , in the middle of the night, might have played a part in that development, but before she could coherently form the words for this, she was knocked to the ground, face first, and face facing the back of Sasuke's head, at least before he turned as much as he could to look at her.

"See?" He had the audacity to ask. "Get me out of here or we're both done for!"

"Not a chance," she answered through grit teeth, pulling his sword from his elaborate belt; leaving that on him hadn't seemed as much of a safety risk back when he was unconscious, and with his tied hands and the sword hilt facing in different directions, using it to free himself had been out of the question as well.

And she could use a sword now, anyways; keeping enemies at a distance was way better and less risky for both of them. Now she could gut people without having to get near them, as she immediately proved on someone trying to attack Sasuke from behind, spilling entrails on the ground when pulling the sword back. Ew.

She cut down to other assailants who had gotten past Kiba and were closing in on Sasuke and her from the front. She'd never really been one for swords, but of course she was familiar with basic usage and all in all, this was no different than a really long tanto, anyways.

Sasuke audibly disagreed, wincing whenever she used his sword for anything, basically.

"That's not how you..." He started to protest, before drawing a horrified breath at her actually cutting a head off, kicking the body away to avoid getting even more blood on herself. Damn, that thing was sharp! "Stop that, you're going to ruin it!"

"It's a sword," she said, by now entirely unaffected by anything Sasuke had to say for some reason she wasn't too keen to dwell on at the moment. "And I'm using it to kill people and protect us. I don't think there's anything wrong about that."

Sasuke seemed to disagree, but she just tuned him out and lost herself completely in the fight. Sure, this wasn't quite what she'd imagined, and this new Sasuke was... Weird, and _annoying_ somehow and really not at all what she had expected... Then again, come to think of it, she hadn't really thought much about what Sasuke would be like when they got him back, and just silently assumed everything would be the same... But they had just taken him prisoner and were forcefully removing him from his chosen life (and casually killing everyone that had been part of that life, not that Sasuke seemed to care much about that), so, okay, he did have every right to be pissed at them.

It was still annoying.

This went on for a while; the stream of attackers never seeming to end, but Kiba and her managed to keep them away from Sasuke, while she occasionally caught glimpses of Naruto and Neji taking care of the single cursed seal bearer, who was thus posing no immediate threat to their target.

A chill went through her, overriding all her other senses, until there was nothing there except for that cold feeling of unease, swallowing her whole. Then she heard Sasuke scream and whirled around. Had she missed a target? Had someone snuck past her?

No. No, she hadn't. Sasuke was glowing. Glowing purple. Crouching in pain as much as he could, given his situation, black marks crawling all over his body.

"Don't!" She shrieked, hurrying towards him. "Don't activate your seal, you don't have the chakra, you're not physically fit enough to..."

"Not... doing... anything..." Sasuke panted. Out of the corner of her eyes, Sakura noticed the other curse seal bearer collapsing and clutching his seal, so it was apparently acting up as well. Sasuke meanwhile was now completely covered in the black swirls, his skin slowly turning into the purplish-grey-brownish color all the people she had brought the hall down on had been. His hair was getting longer and lighter, now a silvery shade of purple, and a dark mark spread over his face.

"Oh, fuck..." Kiba muttered, looking petrified. But Sakura kept running towards Sasuke, who was still screaming in pain through all of this, but had broken his restraints thanks to the unnatural strength and resilience the cursed seal gave to its bearers. But his body still wouldn't be able to sustain this kind of change, not with the lung damage and everything that had happened... Wings broke through his back, or at least Sakura assumed that's what Naruto had referred to as his wings; they looked more like misshapen claws or hands, and really not like he could fly using them.

"Try fighting it!" She pleaded, kneeling down in front of him, but he was fighting the wrong thing, made apparent by the flapping of his wing-like extensions, who actually managed to lift him out of the ground, making Sakura do something very stupid.

She held onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck and torso, just to _keep him from flying away_ , as ridiculous as that notion sounded; he'd never have the strength to actually go through with this, cursed seal or no, and staying like this for much longer could _kill_ him, as far as she knew. And she had researched the cursed seal and its effects quite a bit in the last eighteen months, as much as had been possible with their resources on the matter.

"Please!" She whispered in his ear. She couldn't let him die, not when they finally _had_ him, not when they were so close... Not on her watch at all. "Just... Just fight this..."

He fought her instead, shaking violently, trying to throw her off, claw her off, kick her off, but she didn't let go. And all things considered, just holding on seemed easier than letting go, because she never had been able to do that, anyways. And she wasn't about to start now. Not when she felt the cuts and bruises on her arms and sides, some of them caused by him, some of them simply re-opened or hit again, not when she actually felt her feet leaving the ground, not when his strength finally seemed to leave him and they fell to the ground. But Sasuke, or whatever it was that had taken hold of him, since he didn't seem quite like himself, even like the weird, annoying self she'd been dealing with all day, was still trying to shake her off, or get away, probably both, she didn't care.

And then there was Naruto, whom she hadn't even noticed arrive, but there he was, holding onto them both, taking the hits and kicks and claws with her, until finally, finally it was all over.

The wings grew back in, the skin turned to its usual pale shade again, the hair was back to normal, and Sasuke was unconscious. Weak, but alive, and _still there_ , and that's all that mattered. And there they lay, all three of them, both her and Naruto still holding on in fear, completely oblivious to their surroundings, until a sneering voice broke them out of their stupor.

"So I take it you're done here?"

Naruto, who had been on top of the pile, sat up first, then grinned.

"Hey, Granny!" He greeted who Sakura assumed to be Tsunade, but couldn't tell for sure since she was definitely not letting go or looking up. Only bad things lay there. "You look about as crappy as I feel! And what the hell is that basket?"

"That's a head basket," someone Sakura could now tell for sure was Tsunade answered. "And watch your tongue, I've been fighting for almost twenty-four hours straight, _and_ just saved all of your asses."

"So... You're carrying a head around in that?" Naruto wisely concluded. "Ew!"

"Mostly for decorational purposes," Tsunade explained, walking towards them until crouching down in front of Sakura. "It's okay, Sakura, I'll take the Uchiha from here."

"He's completely out of chakra and weak and still recovering from lung injuries, well, a hole in his shoulder, a few cracked ribs, and some internal bleeding because I had to punch him, twice, oh god, I didn't check if I broke anything the second time..." Sakura started her report, then sitting up abruptly, getting ready to perform a new examination on Sasuke, how could she have missed that? Sure, she hadn't hit him with anything resembling full force, but, uh, when full force meant a fist going right through, and yes, she'd done that before, mostly by accident, that didn't really mean anything, so...

"Like I said, I'll take it from here," Tsunade repeated, her voice low and soothing. "Are you okay? You look even more fucked up than I do."

"I'm fine," Sakura assured her. "Blood's not mine, for the most part, and nothing is still bleeding, so I'm good."

"Awesome," Tsunade tousled her hair, then grabbed Sasuke and slung him over her shoulder like a sack of rice. Sakura winced.

"Careful! Possible internal bleeding!" She reminded her master, who just laughed.

"I've dealt with that before," Tsunade informed her, looking amused. "Are you in shape enough to heal?"

"I guess," Sakura mumbled and got up.

"Then go join the healing tents," Tsunade ordered. "I hear they're pretty crowded right now and can use every extra hand. The rest of you, either get fixed up or get ready for departure. We are so done with this place."

* * *

Since nobody in their little entourage had been hurt significantly, they quietly made their way back towards the encampments to either report back to their combat unit and commanding officer, which most likely wasn't going to be pleasant since besides Naruto none of them had been gone on official orders, or, in Sakura's case, to the healing tents. They chose a route well away from the battle fields, much to Sakura's relief, as she was in no mood to see any carnage she couldn't fix. The hints of it she could still smell in the air and make out on a distant clearing were enough for her already.

"Haruno," she was suddenly addressed by Neji. "Can I trouble you for a moment?"

From his expectant look and the fact he had stopped and seemed to be waiting for her, Sakura deduced he wanted her to go with him. She shared a glance with Naruto, who shrugged and led their entourage onwards, so she followed Neji straight towards the clearing she'd been meaning to avoid.

"What is it?" She asked, feeling slightly uneasy; the battle field had been abandoned hours ago, and everyone who could be saved had been taken to the healing tents anyways, so she really didn't see what she was supposed to do there.

"It... Appears the medical squads made a mistake," Neji answered, sounding strangely uncomfortable. "They seem to not have collected someone I can clearly see is still alive."

"Then why aren't we running faster?!" Sakura asked, breaking into a run. If the medical squads deemed someone dead, they were usually gravely injured, too gravely to be fixed anymore, and if that person had managed to hang on for so long...

Arriving on the clearing was like a punch in the gut. Or several. Dealt by herself. Going right through.

It was still littered with corpses, strewn over a field of debris that stretched over the whole clearing; blood and mud everywhere, slowing down the decomposition, but doing nothing against the smell. And it looked as if the ground had just... Given in, or collapsed for... Some reason...

"Neji..." Sakura had to fight real hard to keep the vomit down. "What happened here?"

"The ground... Collapsed for no apparent reason," he answered hesitantly. "It's what turned the battle around."

"Oh god..." She curled up her fists, trying hard to stay composed. _She_ had caused all of this carnage. This was what had happened when she brought that hall down; not even considering what might be on top... All of these corpses... She'd killed them all...

Neji grabbed her arm and dragged her along before she could think about this any further, right to the edge of the clearing, where she saw a familiar head and torso above the ground, the lower half of the body buried in debris.

"Tenten!" Sakura screamed out and hurried over to her. Neji said she was still alive. That there was still _something_ left she could fix about this... Something...

"Her chakra is still circulating," Neji informed her. "Which is usually the first thing to stop upon death."

"I know," Sakura whispered, trying to blend out her horror at the carnage she'd caused while sending tentative waves of chakra through Tenten's head. Brain activity. Weak pulse, but pulse. Internal organs still working. Both legs and hips broken several times, but only minor spinal cord damage. Also dehydration. How long had she been left here?

"Hold her still," Sakura instructed Neji, waving him over and showing him where to hold onto Tenten. "I need to remove the debris from her lower body, without moving her spine any more than necessary."

It was nice to see him following orders without question for a change, she mused, while she dug into all the strength she had left to pull the pieces of ground and rock pinning down Tenten out of the mud and tossing them aside, but only slightly since she was afraid to break anything on anyone else. Again.

When she was done, Tenten was still waist-deep in mud, but at least her legs were sort of directly treatable now, so Sakura went to work. Healing the minor spinal cord issue was actually the easiest thing to do here; there was only a little damage and nerves were easier to mend than bones. Mending the nerves of course also meant better transmission of pain signals to Tenten's brain, but that was probably not the worst thing right now, as it kept her unconscious. From what Sakura could tell, it had mostly been the pain that knocked her out in the first place.

Next came the hips; a clean break, nothing too hard to mend together again; still, animating bones to grow back together was always a little more tedious than closing cuts or repairing internal organs, since chakra healing was basically speeding up the body's natural healing process, and that took a pretty long time to mend bones as well.

After the hips were done, taking her about five minutes, she carefully dug up the knees; sure, Tenten's femur shafts were both broken in places as well, but once the knees were okay, she could be transported much easier.

The knee cap itself was undamaged, but there was some damage to the ligaments around it, which was preferable from a healing standpoint, since ligaments were also easier to repair than bones, and knee caps in particular were tricky.

The last thing she treated herself right there were the comminuted fractures, where the bone had been broken into several tiny pieces instead of just splitting cleanly, since those could get nasty during and after transportation, messing up muscles and ligaments and nerves and what not, and causing some more permanent damage she wanted to avoid. Luckily, there were only three such fractures, one on each thigh, or femur shaft, and one on her left shin. Setting these took her about another fifteen minutes, and she saw funny patterns once she was done. Which was good. Funny patterns prevented her from seeing the carnage she'd caused.

"It's okay, we can carry her now," she informed Neji, trying to get up, but staggering. Neji did hold her by the arm for support, but it was one of the least enthusiastic catches she'd ever witnessed. Not the most compassionate fellow, that. No one to faint on, for sure.

"Can _you_ carry her?" He asked, raising his eye brows in that mocking doubtful way he did. Asshole.

"Yes, I'm fine, just a little out of chakra... And exhausted," she explained. "It's been a rough day, don't you agree?" Instead of maybe being a little amused at her joke, Neji just rolled his eyes. Wow. After sort of doing him a favor, he could at least have laughed at her jokes. Asshole.

Sakura just rolled her eyes as well, which hurt just a little, and carefully scooped Tenten up under her knees, gesturing for Neji to take the top half from under the shoulders, carefully removing her from the mud and carrying her off. Huh. Tenten got an almost worried look from him, albeit while being unconscious and deemed dead by the medical squads before. But if that was all it took to make Hyuuga Neji show emotion... Oh well. None of her business. Not her place to judge. Or make assumptions. Or anything. Ever.

Right now, everything she wanted and quite frankly needed to do was get some rest, and some distance to what had happened today. Oh yes. Rest was good.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And now that that's done and dealt with, well spend the next few chapters winding down from all this excitement and just talk. A lot. About things. Yes. Because this fic has way too little dialogue so far. Obviously.


	6. Don't You Know Who I Think I Am?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As announced, we now wind down from all the excitement and have some peaceful talks. Not. Sasuke does not feel like being compliant right now. Tsunade doesn't care. Sakura is weirdly apathetic. And Naruto tries to save the situation.

**Don’t You Know Who I Think I Am?**

 

Sakura didn't see Naruto or Sasuke-kun again on her way home; she travelled with the medical squad, which was always the slowest since it took care of the wounded on the go, and they did not have Combat Unit C stay behind to protect them, so she had nobody but the sick and wounded or other medics to keep her company. Which was probably a good thing, since that gave her some... Distance to what had happened.

What she had done to that battlefield and the people on it haunted her, even more so now when she had spent several hours treating people who sustained injuries from the ground suddenly collapsing. What had she been thinking, bringing that hall down? Of course that would affect the surface! That's how underground lairs worked.

When she had talked to Shizune about it, all the older woman had been able to tell her was that she shouldn't worry about what's already been done, and in any case, it had taken down more enemies than allies, so it was all in all a good thing. That didn't keep Sakura from having nightmares about it and having to fight off nausea every time she had to treat someone who'd been in what was now called a _landslide_.

Granted, that had also been the case every time she'd had to treat an open wound just a year ago, but somehow she doubted this would go away just as easily.

So she did the only thing she could at the time; distract herself. Mainly by thinking about all the other things that had happened. Namely, Sasuke-kun being back with them where he belonged. Because he did. She was still sure of that. No matter how... Weird he had been in those few moments he'd spent conscious.

He had been mean before, sure, she still remembered the plate of apples he had very energetically refused back in the day. He had also left Naruto looking like a mummy due to the injuries sustained in their fight, and left her on that bench, and generally Sasuke really hadn’t been what you considered a nice person... But somehow he had seemed... Worse, somehow, during this little rescue mission. She couldn't quite say what had been so off-putting about his behavior then, he'd just been... A different kind of asshole, really.

Then again, she had never been in a position of power over him before. So maybe that had played a part. And she'd also never seen him misjudge a situation quite as badly as he had... Well, she could understand that Sasuke-kun didn't think her capable of... Much, at all, at least up to now, because back when he'd left, she quite frankly hadn't been. And okay, maybe Naruto gave of the vibe of being too nice to actually go through with keeping anyone prisoner, and Hinata wasn't exactly the type for that either, but the other three? The thought that a prisoner could order Neji or Kiba or Shino around seemed absurd to her, and always would have.

She'd always heard people talk about how cocky and arrogant Sasuke was, but up until then, it had always seemed like an... Attractive quality to her. And the confrontation with the blunt reality that arrogance led to stupidity even in _Sasuke-kun_ of all people was kind of hard to stomach.

Well. Admittedly, everything had been hard to stomach these last few days they'd been travelling. Just for different reasons.

 

On the other hand, her own behavior towards Sasuke-kun at the time made her retroactively uncomfortable as well. Had she really talked to him like that? What had she been thinking? Ugh. And the way they talked after she had... Buried him in the ground... Oh, god. That had been _so_ weird. And then when the cursed seal acted up... She felt like she should be blushing for clinging to him like she did, for reasons that sort of still escaped her except for maybe that it had sort of worked before, but no blushing happened. Odd.

Then again, the scene didn't play out quite as romantic in her mind as the one during the chuunin exams did.

That... Was another thing she didn't want to think about. Anything related to feelings and romance, and ugh. It just seemed all so... Insignificant now. She wasn't sure how she felt about Sasuke right now, but whatever was there kind of put anything she'd claimed to have felt for him to shame in both intensity and sincerity, but... Things were different now. She was different. And Sasuke was odd. And any kind of romantic fantasy she'd ever had involving him now felt odd. Maybe because she had finally accepted that that just wasn't happening, but no. No, she'd done that the moment she'd woken up on that bench, at the latest.

Now she wasn't even sure if she wanted any of her romantic fantasies involving Sasuke-kun to come true. Not because she didn't like him anymore, she did, but because... Well... It didn't seem... Good, for either of them.

Ugh. She hated thinking about this. There were way more important things to focus on. Even if they made her want to throw up and caused her nightmares. But choosing her battles had never really been a strength of hers.

 

They reached Konoha three days after the main hosts had, on the evening. The injured were taken to the hospital; whoever was able to walk home was allowed to walk home since the hospital would be overcrowded anyways. Sakura herself was allowed to go home early, since apparently there had been orders put in for her to visit Tsunade as soon as possible. But right now, her mom took precedence.

"Mom, I'm home!" She managed to shout upon entering her house, before her mother positively strangled her in a hug way more forceful than Sakura thought her capable of.

"I was so worried!" Her mom muttered against her temple. "What took you so long? Nobody told me what happened to you!"

"I travelled back with the medics," Sakura explained. "They need longer because we also carry the wounded and treat them underway, so that's what took so long."

"But you're okay?" Her mother cupped her face with both hands and looked at her intently, the old worry lines that had appeared with the drums, what seemed to have been ages ago, more and more visible.

"I think so," Sakura assured her. "I'm just a little beat up from everything, but no injuries or anything, so don't worry."

"Alright," Her mom kissed her on the forehead and stood up straight again, towering over Sakura by about a head. "Do you have any more plans for today, or should I get dinner ready?"

"Tsunade-sama wants to see me," Sakura answered, biting her lips uncomfortably. She hadn't really told her mom much about what had been going with her and her team so far. "So I don't know how long that's gonna take. But I'll shower and get a change of clothes first." She wrinkled her nose. "I've been wearing these clothes for five days now!"

"And you certainly won't be able to wear them ever again," her mother observed, looking her up and down. "They're so torn up; even I won't be able to fix them."

"That's okay," Sakura assured her. "I'm sure the special mission I did will pay for new ones, and no, don't ask, I'm not allowed to tell you."

"Alright." Her mother smiled at her fondly. "Then go take that shower before your clothes develop some kind of new life form or something like that."

 

Sakura hurried with her shower, and with putting on new clothes, because as nice as it was to be home again, keeping Tsunade waiting was not a good idea. When she came downstairs to say goodbye, there were sandwiches waiting for her.

"The only thing I could make on short notice," her mom apologized. "I'll have something more substantial ready when you come back."

"Oh, mom, that's not necessary!" Sakura protested. "I don't even know when that will be, and these things have more nutritional value than anything I ate the last few days anyways, so just eat dinner without me!" She had been sustained by soldier pills, as had everyone else, while the siege had been going on. They kept you running and well supplied with energy, but were rather lacking in anything else that would have classified them as food, leave alone good food.

"Nonsense!" Her mom argued. "That's exactly the reason you should have dinner! I'll prepare something light, so your stomach can get used to food again, okay?"

"Fine," Sakura rolled her eyes, but was actually quite touched by having someone fussing over her again. Those last few days, she'd been the one to do the fussing. "I really need to go now, see you later, maybe!" With these words, she kissed her mom on the cheek and hurried off.

 

***

 

"So there you are," Tsunade greeted her, not looking up from some document she was studying. "What took you so long?"

" _You_ assigned me to the medical squad," Sakura reminded her. "Those take a little more time to travel."

"I know that," Tsunade said, not sounding angry per se, but not too pleased either. "But Shizune was travelling with the medical squad as well, and she reported back to me half an hour ago."

Shizune was currently standing at her usual spot behind Tsunade’s desk and waved at Sakura apologetically.

"I went home, got a change of clothes, and told my mom I'm still alive," Sakura explained. "Why did nobody tell her that, by the way?"

"Ah, damn," Tsunade cursed absent mindedly. "I've been meaning to do that. Sorry, civilians just miss out on most of the information. I'm trying to work on that."

"It's okay," Sakura sighed. "So, uhm, what have you called me here for?"

"Oh, right." Tsunade put down her folder for a second and turned to the open window behind her. "BRAT!"

"WHAT?!" Naruto yelled back, dangling down in front of the window, his face lighting up as he saw her. "Sakura-chan!" He swung inside through the open window and pulled her into a bear hug. She was getting a lot of those today.

"Hey," she greeted him and returned the hug. "So you're still in one piece, huh?"

"Sure looks like it!" Naruto grinned, then turned around to Tsunade. "So what do you want from us, Granny?"

"Tell the guard outside the door to bring in the prisoner," she ordered, preoccupied with her reading again. "And make it quick."

Naruto did as he was told, and five minutes later, Sasuke was brought in, conscious again, better restrained than before, and still glaring at them like they had... Done what they had actually done. Right.

“So…” Tsunade said after a short while and loudly closed the folder she had been examining. “Uchiha. From what I can tell, this village has been kind of a bitch to you, hasn’t it?”

Shizune behind Tsunade’s desk choked and almost dropped Tonton, while Sakura herself had to suppress a gasp. Sasuke next to her just raised his eyebrows skeptically.

“Granny, don’t you mean his brother?” Naruto asked and thus voiced their confusion.

“Nah, I don’t care so much about that,” Tsunade answered, waving dismissively. “Nothing I can do about it, anyways.”

“So what’s this about?” Sasuke hissed, glaring at Tsunade. Sakura frowned.

What the hell was he thinking, being openly hostile to the very person who had his life in her hands? Did he really lack that much common sense to realize how this wasn’t a good idea? Sure, she could understand his general anger, but this lack of forethought... Had already been weird down in that underground lair, when he was faced with a bunch of people who were roughly his peers, but right now? When he'd had days to get his general situation straight? And was facing the _Hokage_? How could he still fail to realize that this would be getting him nowhere? And why was this bothering her so much?

“This is about how this village systematically denied you any and all opportunities to get any form of advanced training,” Tsunade answered, unfazed by Sasuke’s blatant disrespect and aggressive behavior. If anything, she seemed rather amused by it. “I mean, I don’t get it. You’re a talented kid, and your number one life goal is to get rid of one of this village’s very own S-Rank Nuke Nins. Why shouldn’t we support that?”

“What are you talking about?” Naruto cried out indignantly. “He got plenty of special attention! He’s the only one Kakashi-sensei ever taught anything useful to!”

“Not… really,” Tsunade informed him, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I mean, I don’t really get it, either, but I have here a written contract Kakashi had to sign when he took over your team. It directly prohibits him from teaching the Uchiha boy anything remotely Sharingan related; even though the fact that he has a Sharingan is the very reason he was assigned to your team in the first place…”

“But… But…” Naruto babbled on. “The Chidori! What about that? That uses the Sharingan, doesn’t it?”

“From what I gather, it’s required, but only in its most basic form,” Tsunade explained. “Like, you only need to have the Sharingan activated, but not actually use any of its own special techniques. Is that right?”

Sasuke nodded.

“Also, how many times did they let _you_ try to graduate early?” Tsunade asked Naruto, a sly grin on her face.

“Uhm…” Naruto made, obviously caught off-guard. “I don’t know… Three times, maybe?”

“And your grades were at the bottom of the barrel,” Tsunade added. “If we went by grades, you’d still be in the academy. Literally everyone else in your class, even those poor sods who didn’t make it to Genin level, would have been better suited for early graduation.”

“Yeah, well…” Naruto scratched the back of his head. “I may have bullied Iruka-sensei into that…”

“Whatever,” Tsunade cut the conversation on this point short. “Thing is, no special efforts were made to support you, Uchiha-boy, in your goal, which is actually in the village’s best interest.”

That suddenly made all the hostile energy and tension leave Sasuke’s body. He just gaped at her like she’d grown a second head. Actually, so did Naruto. And Sakura herself.

“Never looked at it that way, huh?” Tsunade chided, smirk ever growing.

“But… But…” Naruto was, again, trying to find words to voice their collective confusion. “Isn’t this whole… Revenge deal kinda… Bad?”

“Is that what they told you?” Tsunade asked, not looking too surprised. “I don’t really think so. I mean, personal involvement is rather frowned upon, but if it gets the job done… No, the problem was that your friend here tended to act, well, unreasonably because of it. And I don’t even mean running off to train under some guy he knew close to nothing about and who was actually just after his body for his own ends. But that was plenty stupid, don’t get me wrong.”

Tsunade leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. Sasuke went back to glaring again, and Sakura, for reasons unfathomable to her, was somehow amused by the situation.

“No, the really stupid thing he did was running away at the first hint that his brother was around, without a plan, without even a hint of the skills needed to confront him, and almost getting himself killed in the process,” she continued explaining. “You should know that, brat. From what I gather, you were there.”

That left all of them silent for a moment.

“So what do you want from me now?” Sasuke then finally growled. His anger at the overall circumstances seemed kind of ridiculous when pitted against Tsunade’s amusement.

“What I want is to offer you a choice,” She answered. “Well, not really, either you accept my terms or you get thrown into prison for treason, but that’s beside the point.”

“I could break out,” Sasuke claimed. Tsunade snorted.

“I doubt that,” She said. “And if you did, you’d have resisted authority and may be put to death immediately upon sight, no questions asked. Not the smartest move, if you want to kill a certain person before your own demise. And where would you go, anways, now that your generous mentor is dead?”

"Do you really believe that?" Sasuke scoffed, raising his eyebrows mockingly.

"For now, I believe that I have his fucking head in a basket under my desk," Tsunade informed him sharply. "Wanna see? No? I didn't think so. And while I don't doubt that he'll probably find a way to get back alive _eventually_ , for now, you have nowhere to run to."

“So what’s his other option?” Naruto asked, obviously trying to save the situation.

“The other option is to stay here, obey commands and receive the training required to reach his goal, eventually,” Tsunade answered.

“And what would that look like?” Sasuke demanded, still failing to sound as thankful as he should for being offered a chance like this.

“Well, three days a week, you’d receive special training from Kakashi,” Tsunade started. “Who is now not only allowed, but explicitly encouraged to teach you all the nifty things your shiny eyes can do. And the other four days you’d spent in sparring matches with your teammates, who will also receive special training in between.”

“And by teammates, you mean Sakura-chan and me?” Naruto asked, beaming excitedly.

“I’m pretty sure he’s never been assigned another team so far,” Tsunade confirmed.

“No,” Sasuke said bluntly.

“I beg your pardon?” Tsunade asked, her tone changing from aloof to dangerous.

“I refuse to work with the same team,” Sasuke elaborated.

“This is non-negotiable,” Tsunade informed him.

“How is sticking me with _her_ any different from what the village has done to me before?” Sasuke asked, raising his voice. “She’s a liability! Putting me with Naruto I get, he’s capable in some way, but _her_?”

That… Actually didn’t sting as much as Sakura had expected it to. To the contrary, it sounded… ridiculous to her. Sure, she hadn’t been of much use a year and a half ago when he’d left the village, but ever since then… She’d brought down a ceiling on about half a dozen bearers of the cursed seal. She’d fought her way through a battlefield of war, protecting him while doing so, and had spent a whole day saving the lives of the village’s soldiers before that. She had managed to restore two heavily injured boys, both with significant _lung damage_ to fighting capability under the worst circumstances possible. Oh, and yes. It had been her who had knocked him out and gotten him into their custody in the first place.

And Sasuke had been there to witness most of it. This statement didn’t make her look bad; it made him look like an angry infant.

“How can you say that?!” Naruto asked, apparently enraged on her behalf. “Sakura kicks all kinds of ass! You’ve seen that!”

“Very much so,” Tsunade agreed, now sounding sterner than before. “I agree that, if we’re going by numbers, sticking you with this team was a bad decision initially. But lucky you, even Sakura is now more than capable. If she weren’t, you wouldn’t be here. About three times over.”

“Most of that was just luck,” Sasuke claimed.

“Yes, obviously, healing a hole in your shoulder without any resources or assistance is clearly a matter of luck,” Tsunade noted, now looking positively offended.

“Sakura-chan, say something!” Naruto demanded. Sakura just shrugged.

“I don’t see the point in arguing,” She said slowly, still a little confused by how the situation had gotten so ridiculous. "I mean, he doesn’t seem like he would listen anyway. And if I had something to prove here, I'd kinda be running out of ideas on how to do that by now." She shrugged. "If what I've done three days ago isn't good enough to be part of this team, then, yeah, I can't think of anything that will ever make me good enough, so just go find someone else, I don't mind."

"What are you talking about?" Naruto asked, in complete shock. "Don't say that, that's bullshit!"

Tsunade however seemed pleased, clearly having picked up on that passive aggressive vibe Sakura may or may not have put into her speech on purpose.

"You have gained a few useful skills," Sasuke said begrudgingly. "I admit that. But if I am to stay here, I need someone exceptional. Naruto's exceptional just by being still alive, but you are... Not."

Sakura was about to point out that Naruto was only still alive because of her after _someone_ had thrust their electrically charged hand right through his right lung wing, but Tsunade was ahead of her on that front.

"Sakura's plenty exceptional in ways you just don't know how to appreciate," she pointed out candidly. "Trust me on that one. And right now, both Naruto and you are only alive now because of her exceptionalness, I can attest to that."

"So she's a medic," Sasuke summarized this. "Big deal. Useful skill, sure, but I've seen her fight, and no, she's nothing exceptional there."

"I was protecting you," Sakura pointed out. "And I got the job done. But if you're referring to my lack of skill in handling swords then yes, I am so sorry, I am less than capable."

"Pffht, I can barely tell the pointy end from the other," Naruto admitted freely, shrugging. "Big deal."

"Not what I meant," Sasuke growled, rolling his eyes, then he faced Sakura again. "You still have my sword, right?"

"Yes," she answered, narrowing her eyes. "I left it at home. Why do you care so much? It's just a sword."

"A special sword, specifically made for me, perfectly balanced, and..." Sasuke stopped himself and just shook his head. "Whatever. I want it back."

"She'll give it back to you at practice tomorrow," Tsunade decided.

"I haven't agreed yet," Sasuke reminded her, clearly still not grasping his situation entirely if he was still thinking he had any power here. Though Sakura had to admit, annoying him like that was kind of fun.

"Just make it through the Chuunin Exams with this team," Tsunade sighed, rolling her eyes. "They’re about three months away and you've managed before, when Sakura was still less than capable. I see no reason for her to be an unreasonable burden for your amazingness now. Pass the exam, become a chuunin, and then we'll talk about team assignments again. Accept these terms, or get comfortable in your jail cell, where you won't be able to get out and will definitely not receive any training to kill your brother anytime soon."

Sasuke glared at her for a moment, apparently still failing to see his anger was no leverage in this situation, especially not when clashing with Tsunade's mocking nonchalance. Then he rolled his eyes, again, and growled, "Fine."

"WOOHOO!" Naruto cheered, complete unperturbed by Sasuke's defiant attitude and Sakura's... Not-reaction.

She honestly didn't care much about what happened now, actually. Sure, reviving Team 7 was a nice turn out, but she wouldn't have minded to exclusively work under Tsunade for the time being, especially since right now, she did feel a lot more like healing than fighting. Oh well. Getting Sasuke back had been her goal for the past eighteen months, so now she'd have to deal with the outcome best as she could. Even if the Sasuke she'd gotten back wasn't quite what she wanted. Then again, he hadn't exactly... Appreciated her efforts before leaving, either. Well. Sort of. Sure, he'd said _thank you_ before leaving, but that seemed to have been a completely different person than the one standing next to her glaring defiantly right now, and _that_ was a very, very bad train of thought she should drop immediately.

"Am I free to go now?" Sasuke asked, taking no notice of Naruto's happiness and her neutrality.

"You won't be free to go for at least a year," Tsunade answered, now all business. "You will be watched by ANBU members every second you are not with your team. We can't risk you running off again, can we? Even though there's nowhere for you to go."

"There's still Kabuto," Sasuke pointed out, which was maybe not the smartest move, all things considered, if he didn't want to be watched at least. "He knows all of Orochimaru's secret techniques, at least in theory."

"Yeah, he's kinda... dead," Naruto told him. "Or still dying, dunno. No way to be sure."

"You saw his corpse?" Tsunade asked, suddenly very interested in their conversation.

"Not exactly," Sakura answered. "We saw him burning alive and regenerating over and over again, so it's mostly a question of who ran out if chakra first; him or the... Flames. Though it seemed to me he was losing."

"What flames?" Sasuke asked, suddenly just as interested as Tsunade, maybe even more.

"Weird, black ones that..." Naruto started to answer, then just gaped at Sasuke, before finally slapping his forehead with the palm of his hand hard enough to leave a red mark. "So that's where I saw those before!"

"You remember?" Sakura asked curiously. "So what was it?" But she got her answer by observing how Sasuke struggled against his restraints, eyes blazing red, and clearly agitated.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?!" He yelled at Naruto.

"Because I didn't know at the time!" Naruto defended himself, raising his hands to calm him down. "Sasuke, that was almost a week ago, even if your brother was there, he sure as hell won't be there anymore now!"

"So the flames had something to do with his brother?" Sakura asked Tsunade, ignoring the two boys quarrelling. It wasn't like there was anything else going to happen with Sasuke restrained the way he was.

"Eternally burning black flames strong enough to burn Kabuto out of chakra?" Tsunade shrugged. "Sounds like a Sharingan skill to me. I think Jiraiya once mentioned that in a report... Whatever. Nothing we can do about it now."

Sasuke was beyond furious at both her and Naruto's words, and hadn't she been slightly pissed off as well, Sakura might have stepped in as a calming agent, but she really wasn't feeling like being supportive right now. Not after what Sasuke had said about her, which was setteling in and enraging her more and more.

"Go home now," Tsunade ordered all of them. "Shizune, you accompany the Uchiha boy, and only take his restraints off once you reach his house, I have people stationed there. Now leave! And meet for training tomorrow morning at your usual spot, wherever that is."

Sakura followed her orders without hesitation. She had dinner waiting for her at home, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soooo sorry for that short chapter! The alternative would have been some 10k monster and yeah no. So I split an almost 20k monster into three chapters, the next one will be longer and sliiightly more eventful! I promise!


	7. Don't Let Me Get Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even though Team 7 is back on again, things don't really go well for Sakura. At all.

> _I'm a hazard to myself_   
> _Don't Let Me Get Me,_   
> _I'm my own worst enemy_   
> _It's bad when you annoy yourself_

 

 

"What even is this?"

They were sitting on their usual training grounds, Naruto looking bored, Sasuke looking enraged at this waste of his time, and Sakura being amused by what was going down in front of her; Jiraiya had taken the lead and was currently chewing out Kakashi, who had actually been almost on time to celebrate the occasion, in what he called a "team evaluation".

"So you get assigned a team, and yes, a difficult team, with big egos clashing, and nobody working together and what do you do?" Jiraiya wrung his hands in frustration. "Nothing! Their teamwork ran on two thirds animosity and one third cheerleading for as long as you had them! The only thing making them barely function those last few days was that their dynamic had now changed to two thirds devotion and one third apathy!" He looked at them. "Or two thirds boredom and one third amusement at what's going on right now, but whatever. So it never occurred to you to do any, I don't know, team work exercises? Bonding activities? Sitting down in circles and talk about your feelings? Anything?"

"We had bonding moments!" Sakura half-heartedly tried to defend her first sensei, even if not really. Training under Tsunade had showed her exactly what she had been missing out on under Kakashi, and she agreed with Jiraiya that his teaching methods had been less than stellar. "They just mostly consisted of getting thrown into situations far beyond our abilities and somehow coming out alive."

"Exactly what she said!" Naruto agreed. "And it was awesome. Except for the almost dying part. We do that a lot..."

"They did display an astounding amount of cooperation once," Kakashi tried defending himself, just as half-heartedly. "On their own, even."

"Oh, did they now." Jiraiya clearly had drawn his own conclusions based on what Naruto had told him already and was having none of what Kakashi had to say. "Do tell."

"They got along just fine when they tried to find out what's under my mask," Kakashi remembered, not seeming too serious himself.

"Fascinating," Jiraiya said without missing a beat and not impressed at all. "So can you at least tell me the purpose of this team?"

"What purpose?" Naruto asked. "We're a Genin team, what's more to it?"

"Genin teams are supposed to specialize already," Jiraiya explained impatiently. "Tracking, spying, fighting, whatever. You guys can't track since nobody here has the skills for that, except maybe Hatake's dogs, and those don't count. You team work is non-existent. You don't have any combo attacks or shared areas of expertise that can justify putting you together in the first place. The only thing you could maybe pull off is be a decent wrecking unit, but those don't get assigned medics, or little girls that can't do anything but the basics." He caught himself there and cleared his throat. "I don't doubt your wrecking abilities though, Girly, please don't tell Tsunade I underestimate you or anything."

"Okay." Sakura was having way too much fun watching Kakashi cringe under Jiraiya's chewing out session to be bothered by anything he said. Or that weird little nickname he’d bestowed her with.

"So what exactly did you kids learn while on this team?" Jiraiya asked the three of them.

"Uh..." Naruto started to think, Sakura rolled her eyes and gave him a moment to come up with something and Sasuke glared at Jiraiya for waisting his time, just as expected.

"We learned to climb trees," Sakura then answered graciously.

"And how not to die in situations too dangerous for us," Naruto added. "Though that just kinda happened and he never taught us anything about it."

"I see," Jiraiya nodded and addressed Kakashi again. "So you get a wrecking team and stop after basic chakra control lessons. You don't teach them any attacks, any combo moves or anything related to the things they might actually be able to pull off under the circumstances."

"The circumstances were that Naruto and Sasuke didn't deem it necessary to work on any of this since their fighting capabilities were already greater than average and this would have just bored them, and Sakura wasn't in the mood to do anything related to fighting, really," Kakashi explained himself, severely annoyed with his students and this interrogation.

"Well, from what I hear, she's been pretty good with genjutsu back then," Jiraiya brought up. "Just dispelling them, mind you, because they don't really teach any combat genjutsu at the academy. But you know some. And you have a freaking Uchiha on your team, which I hear have a knack for these things as well. Why did you never make them do anything related to that?"

"Because, as you know, Naruto most likely has negative talent when it comes to genjutsu," Kakashi reminded him. "And I didn't want to separate the team any more than it already was."

"Would have only meant teaching someone something useful," Jiraiya sneered. "I get it. Also, yes, Naruto can't do shit with genjutsu which makes him walk straight into them even if there's a giant blinking sign saying 'This is an illusion, walk the other way'. I know, I've been there. Wanna know what I did? I taught him to dispel them when something seems fishy."

"Ugh, that was so weird." Naruto shuddered. "And he took that fishy thing way too literally!"

"So that would have been a neat training opportunity, but no," Jiraiya continued. "You were too busy not teaching anyone anything useful!"

"So not true!" Naruto protested. "He taught Sasuke the Chidori!"

"Sure," Jiraiya admitted, shrugging. "But all things considered, that isn't exactly useful."

"It's pretty useful for making holes through people's chests!" Naruto argued.

"Yes, but just like the Rasengan, which I'm also kinda fond as you know, it's not exactly reliable."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Naruto was squinting his eyes as he always did when he was deep in thought about something, apparently trying to figure out what was wrong with his most favorite move ever.

"Think about it this way; ever since you both started depending on your fancy ball of energy attacks almost exclusively, when have ever hit anything besides each other, immobilized targets in self-made sand prisons or targets that weren't even bothering to dodge because they started regenerating while you were still charging it up?"

"Uhm..." Naruto apparently didn't remember any other instance. Sasuke was now glaring like he was majorly offended. Sakura was still having too much fun with this situation to care.

"That's what I thought," Jiraiya said smugly. "So the smart course of action would have been to at least teach you restraining techniques so you can immobilize targets yourself, kind of like those Ino-Shika-Chou kids have to since the fancy mind switch techniques only work on non-moving targets."

Sakura could have sworn she heard Sasuke clear his throat at that, but nobody paid him any mind, not with the show going on any everything.

"At this point their training was out of my hands," Kakashi reminded him. "Tsunade-sama and you already taken over and Sasuke was gone."

"Then let's address that for a second," Jiraiya shrugged. "So you get assigned a team specifically because there's a Sharingan user on it, and you are a Sharingan user, and yet, you never teach him anything related to his Sharingan? No, really, all things considered, I totally get why the kid left. I probably would have done the same, though I wouldn't have chosen the Snake as my mentor." He turned around to throw a chiding glance at Sasuke. "Not cool, seriously. Not cool at all."

"I was under strict orders..." Kakashi started to defend himself, but Jiraiya waved dismissively.

"I didn't raise Minato to raise you to obey stupid orders without question!" He seemed seriously offended at the thought. So did Kakashi.

"Who's Minato?" Naruto asked Sakura quietly as to not interrupt what was going on with their senseis right now.

"Namikaze Minato, fourth Hokage," Sakura answered. "Student of Jiraiya-sama, sensei of Kakashi-sensei, you see his face every day in the mountain. How do you not know that name?"

"People don't talk about him much, do they?" Naruto justified himself, shrugging. "And those two sure don't."

"It's not like the Fourth ever actually did that much for me, except never being there when needed," Kakashi meanwhile hissed almost inaudibly.

"That's still no reason to take it out on hi-... On these kids!" Jiraiya argued. Kakashi visibly paled at the slip-up there, Sakura noted. Though why, and what Jiraiya had actually meant to say, she had no clue."And you know, for not being allowed to teach the Uchiha boy anything actually useful and reliable, you sure were quick to shove everyone but him aside when it came to actually teaching."

"I got a teacher for Naruto and Sakura didn't make it into the third round anyways," Kakashi pointed out.

"A teacher ill-suited for him," Jiraiya specified. "And sure, the girl can't do shit in comparison, so let's just ignore her more. Awesome tactic."

"How much longer is this going to take?" Sasuke interrupted them, just short of being completely furious at this point. "Because if you haven't noticed, I'm not exactly learning anything useful here right now, either."

"I'm teaching you the useful skill to point out bullshit," Jiraiya claimed, waving dismissively. "Which, by the way, you could have done. I mean, Sarutobi-sensei seems to really have had his head up his ass when it came to this issue, but as soon as Tsunade took over? Yeah, you guys should have just complained to her immediately, and not have waited for some freak and his squad of freaks to spirit you away."

"I wasn't spirited away," Sasuke scoffed, seriously offended. "I left willingly."

"And that's the whole problem," Jiraiya made a widespread motion with his arms, indicating they'd just come full circle.

"Right now, you're making me want to leave again," Sasuke spat back. "I've accomplished more useful stuff on my own than by listening to you rant."

"Apparently adopting a more pleasant attitude wasn't among these skills," Jiraiya noted, the corners of his mouth twitching. "Seriously, Orochimaru didn't make you drop the 'tude? Must have gone soft in his old years."

Sasuke rolled his eyes instead of dignifying that with a response.

"Well, he has a point," Naruto supported him. "While it's kind of cool what you've just said, we're not exactly learning any cool fighting skills we should have learned back then right now either, are we?"

"That's because you have all the cool fighting skills you need already. At least in theory," Jiraiya explained. "They just need refinement and a little thinking outside the box, which is why the majority of your training will just be simple sparring. The only stuff you missed out it would make sense to teach you at this point are teamwork and bonding exercises, and I get the feeling you'll conspire to murder me in my sleep if I make you do those."

"Already considering it," Sasuke muttered.

"Or we could just not do anything and throw you into prison for some attitude adjustment," Jiraiya informed Sasuke. "I'm talking about the kind Ibiki does to prisoners. Such a pleasant guy, have you met him?"

Sakura seriously doubted that threatening Sasuke of all things would produce any kind of positive response at this point, but refrained from pointing this out since antagonizing new teachers had never been her thing to begin with. And Jiraiya seemed to like her well enough so far, or at least liked defending her... Which all in all could maybe be related to her being Tsunade's student and the ambiguous nature of their relationship she really didn't want to think about, but whatever.

"No, but seriously, can we just do something?" Naruto asked, both to sort of defend Sasuke and because he was getting bored by sitting around and listening for so long. "You can't really have much more to say, right?"

"No, I think that basically covers it all," Jiraiya agreed. "So yeah, get up, we're doing something."

They walked to the edge of the training area they'd been meeting in to where the surrounding forest started. Sakura liked the trees in Konoha decidedly better than those in Kusa. They looked a lot less creepy and provided less hiding space for ambushes. It was a good thing that in their profession, paranoia was actually a virtue, otherwise she'd have seriously questioned her mental health at this point.

"As mentioned before, your group training will mostly be sparring to refine your already existing skills," Kakashi now took over for Jiraiya, clearly still annoyed by being chewed out like this in front of his new and former students. "Basically just fighting each other, but with a few limitations; first and foremost, no Rasengan, no Chidori. No going in for lethal attacks. No going in for attacks causing damage that Sakura cannot heal."

"That's too vague," Sasuke interrupted him there, not completely unwarranted actually. "What _can_ she heal?"

Though the question was actually not directed at her, Sakura felt everyone's looks on her to clear that up herself. She took a deep breath.

"Well..." Solid start there, good job defending yourself, because this clearly was intended as some form of insult. She cleared her throat just to see if that made it easier. "Cuts, obviously, and burns, bruises usually don't need healing, but technically I could do that, too, broken bones, though those are exhausting, poisons that don't kill you immediately, damaged internal organs, as long as they're not completely destroyed or have been damaged severely enough to have been inactive for too long, uhm, infections, blood poisoning, because those basically work like regular poison, and... yeah, I think that's it." She paused for a second, mulling it over. "Well, more complicated fractures, spinal cord and brain injuries beyond concussions, as well as severed limbs require a team of medics, but I've led some of the procedures there, and attended all of them, so if we can get you to a hospital in time, I can technically heal those, too."

"Okay..." Naruto was scratching his head, trying to process all of this. "So what _can't_ you heal?"

"Well, there are limits on the damage an organ can sustain that determine whether it can be fixed," Sakura specified. "And any of the latter things I can't do on my own, and since we're far from the hospital and all of these conditions are really bad for transportation, I guess we can rule those out."

"Let's just go with that," Kakashi sighed and stopped her there. "Was that specific enough for you, Sasuke?" Sasuke just shrugged, but didn't voice any further complaints, so Kakashi continued. "Also, when we say a fight is over, it's over. If someone yields, it's over. If someone breaks the rules, it's over. And if someone gets send out of the designated area, it's over. Any questions?"

Sakura had some, but deemed it wiser to hold them off until she could get one of her senseis, preferably Jiraiya who to her seemed to have a better grasp on things right now, alone, or at least out of earshot of the boys. She also didn't want to hold things up anymore lest they continue to be bored enough to start fighting on their own.

So when they predictably were pitted against each other for the first fight, Sakura watched on for about three minutes, as Sasuke sliced through countless Naruto clones with the sword she had brought him before. She had even looked up proper cleaning rituals for swords at home to make sure she wouldn't damage it when getting the dried in blood and gore off it (letting it dry had apparently been her first mistake there) but naturally, she hadn't even received a nod of thanks. Or acknowledgement, even.

It was weird, really, since this dismissive attitude was nothing new in Sasuke; he hadn't really thanked her much in the past, had he? Yet it only started to sting now.

Maybe because in this team, she'd always had taken it for granted to be unappreciated in any situation, an expectation that had only changed when she'd started training under Tsunade and actually being kinda good at something for the first time since graduation.

Anyways, watching the boys fight made her really uncomfortable, for, well, reasons, she kept telling herself. Of course she didn't like seeing them fight; the last times they did, it had put both of them with one foot in the grave. Things were still tense all around, anyways. And the rules that had just been set up could easily be broken, even with about the best supervision available to them in the whole village. Which made her question all the more pressing.

"I didn't want to question your authority in front of them just now," she started neutrally, implying to be addressing both of her senseis. "And with all due respect, if we are so lacking in team work, is making us fight each other even more going to help that, at all?"

Jiraiya and Kakashi shared a glance, apparently surprised at her question.

"Well, the thing is," Kakashi started. "As Jiraiya-dono said, this team is running mostly on your and Naruto's devotion to it. That's always been it; you've all been devoted, and those two have always been fighting. So basically, what we are hoping to accomplish with this is inspire a little bit of nostalgia in Sasuke, to remind him that he was devoted to this team once, too."

"Devoted to not dying and getting stronger," Sakura corrected. "Those just coincided with being on this team, and that's no longer the case, at least not necessarily."

"True," Kakashi admitted. "But tell me, when he left, do you think he did it lightly?"

Sakura mulled this over for a second. Well, sure, he'd bothered to justify himself, at least to her, during the small part of his departure she'd been present for, when he could have just knocked her out the minute she showed up, and even taken time to lie her down on that bench, but... He didn't exactly seem hesitant through any of that. Or during anything he did to Naruto afterwards.

"Lightly enough to go through with it," she concluded. "And we did give him lots of opportunities to change his mind."

"Also true," Kakashi agreed grimly. "But that doesn't change the fact that he's here now. He doesn't have to be."

"We didn't exactly leave him a choice," Sakura argued. "Tsunade-sama's terms were very clear in that regard."

"Yes, but he showed up this morning," Kakashi pointed out. "On time even, from what I've heard." Sakura noticed the amused gleam in Kakasi's eyes, but couldn't manage more than a weak smile at his joke. "Point being, he didn't have to be. He's also been remarkably compliant through all of this."

"In other words, he could have been a lot less compliant," Jiraiya added. "The boy has major attitude problems, and from what I gather, he's always had those. But he could have just not showed up, or not agreed to this fight, or still be mouthing off right now. But he isn't. He's following orders. And while he doesn't have _much_ choice on that front, he's still doing _some_ of this voluntarily. So the nostalgia thing seems to be working."

"I guess," Sakura reluctantly agreed and bit her lips. "So if fighting Naruto is evoking nostalgia in Sasuke-kun, what's fighting me supposed to evoke?"

"Respect, hopefully," Jiraiya answered. Then he elbowed her in the side with a smirk. "And admit it, don't you want to smack him around a bit?"

Sakura shrugged.

"At full strength, I think he's more likely to be smacking me around," she admitted quietly.

"He's not allowed to use full strength," Kakashi reminded her. Sakura suppressed the urge to roll her eyes at him. Because Sasuke always cared so much about the rules. Right. "And in any case, you'll at least give him more of a fight than he'll be expecting. So try taking advantage of that."

Something in her wanted to point out the irony that one of the rare times Kakashi ever gave her advice were still revolving entirely around Sasuke, but she swallowed the comment down. So what if they were doing all of this just because of Sasuke. She'd _wanted_ him to be back, right? So why was she so annoyed by doing what it apparently took to keep him around now?

She'd been happy on Team 7 before. Why did it now all seem so frustrating?

Sakura was too caught up in her own thoughts to immediately realize what was happening before her; suddenly there was a cackling and chirping sound, accompanied with the flashing of lightning, confirming her previous assumption about how highly Sasuke regarded rules in general and rules in combat in particular, but all of this wasn't coming from his hand, as it should have. It was channeled through the sword, which she had noticed seemed oddly charred in places while cleaning it. And only when he aimed it at the ground did she combine in her head what exactly he was trying to accomplish here.

Kakashi-sensei and Jiraiya-sama were on the tree to greet her. Naruto wasn't so lucky and hit the ground, completely paralyzed. Sasuke pointed his sword at Naruto's throat.

"Am I done here?" He then addressed the tree, looking slightly displeased at finding them there.

"You broke the rules," Kakashi pointed out calmly, but looking about as surprised by this as Sakura felt. "Therefore, yes you are done, and you lost."

"I didn't exactly break them," Sasuke argued with a cocky smirk the she would have considered hot under usual circumstances, but that now just seemed... Grating. "That was not the Chidori you referred to, and it's not a lethal attack. The paralysis is not permanent, so Sakura being unable to heal it shouldn't matter."

"It is still _a_ Chidori and thus qualifies," Kakashi said. "And regardless, you are not done here, despite your best efforts."

All three of them left the tree, and Kakashi gently pushed Sakura in Sasuke's general direction, while Jiraiya went to collect a knocked out Naruto. Why he hadn't used that move when they'd fought underground a few days ago eluded Sakura, but she really wasn't in a mood to ponder on that now. She was more concerned with not looking to terrified at the prospect of having to fight a severely annoyed Sasuke who could send paralyzing electric currents through the ground.

Oh, well. Whatever it took, right?

 

* * *

 

Her fights with both Sasuke and even Naruto went about as well as Sakura would have expected. Sure, she did fight back and managed to hit them a lot more than she would have expected herself, but there was absolutely no denying that when it came to an actual combat situation, with none of them gravely injured or anything, there was just absolutely no way for her to hold up. At all.

As if she had needed any confirmation of that.

Still, complaining or showing any kind of weakness, especially with their team dynamics in limbo the way they were, just wouldn't do. So she swallowed the pain and the humiliation, healed everyone else's minor cuts and bruises and went on her merry way, smile in place. She only allowed herself to drag that leg she had probably bruised pretty badly when she was sure nobody she knew was around to see her do it; having a civilian mother and living in a different part of the village than most of her acquaintances helped tremendously.

"I'm okay mom, don't worry!" She told her mother in lieu of a greeting when she limped into the house and her mother ran over to start fussing over her. "No, really, I'm just going to take a bath and heal myself up, and then I'll be good as new! I'll eat dinner after, I hope you've made a lot, because I'm starving!" And gone she was, smile still in place. It would do no good to worry her mom with her personal demons.

The hot water was soothing, but also served as a reminder that besides her bad leg, she also cracked a rib slightly and should be covered with bruises all over by tomorrow. Bruises were annoying, but nothing to waste chakra on (it even said so in her vows), so she just took care of her leg and rib as well as she could with what little chakra she had left.

The boys had not been easy on her. She hadn't expected Sasuke to, after everyone in general and she in particular had been irritating him non-stop for almost a week now. Not even Naruto had pulled his punches, even after seeing her getting beaten by Sasuke. Not that she would have wanted him to; that would have been even more humiliating.

At least tomorrow, she would have private lessons with Tsunade-sama again, and while that mostly meant either doing hospital shifts or paper work by now, it also meant nobody would use her as a punching bag for three days every week, and there would be less humiliation. Because healing and doing paper work were things she was actually kind of good at for a change.

"Sakura, can we talk about this?" Her mom asked her through the door, sounding way more worried than necessary.

"About what?" Sakura asked back, really not in the mood to talk about anything right now.

"Is that how it's going to be from now on?" Her mom continued. "You come home, occasionally, and will always be covered in cuts and bruises and blood..."

"No blood today!" Sakura corrected her. Cuts were something she had healed on the spot, and wiped away the blood as well as she could before heading home.

"I mean..." Her mom hesitated. "I understand that your profession is a dangerous one, but... It's never been like this before, why are things different now?"

"Because I now do actual training with my team," Sakura explained. "That involves fighting and getting injured. I'm sorry, there's nothing I can do."

"I just... Worry..." Her mother's voice was now so quiet, it hardly made it through the door. "When I signed you up to be a ninja, I thought I was protecting you... In a way. I didn't expect it to be like this..."

"Mom, I'm okay!" Sakura assured her. "Really, there's no need to worry about me. And I won't come home like this all the time; I'll be working with Tsunade-sama again tomorrow."

"Ah, that's good." Her mother audibly sighed in relief. "Tsunade-sama hasn't injured you in almost a year now, right?"

"Stop making it sound so dramatic!" Sakura protested weakly. "It's training. Training is hard, training hurts, and sometimes you get injured, that’s normal. But yes, Tsunade-sama hasn't had me do anything dangerous in a long time." At least not dangerous for her. And at least not when you didn't count everything that had happened in the last week.

"I know that!" Her mom sounded embarrassed now. "It's just... Be careful, sweetie, okay?"

"Yes, mom, I will," Sakura sighed. "Promise."

"Very well." Her mom now forced herself to sound less worried and more resolute. "So when am I going to meet this new team of yours?"

Sakura almost slipped and hit her head in the bathtub.

"Uhm..." Introducing her team in its current condition to her mom _really_ didn't sound like a good idea. At all. "I don't know... It's kind of... Busy right now..."

"You still could bring them over for dinner!" Her mom argued. "Ninjas still need to eat, right?"

"Sure, but..." Sakura sighed again. "I just... Don't think that's a good idea."

"Nonsense!" Her mother protested. "I am your mother! I have a right to meet the people you spend most of your day with."

"...I'll see what I can do," Sakura relented, not actually meaning to invite anyone over for dinner, but there was definitely no arguing with her mother right now. Not when she went full mother mode. Then she could possibly the most terrifying person on the planet. "I can't promise anything, though! Very, very busy people, every one of them. No time for dinners."

"We shall see." Her mom sounded scarily resolute. "I'll take care of our dinner now. Be sure to get out of the tub before your finger wrinkle, you know that's not good for your skin!"

"Yes, mom." Sakura rolled her eyes. Because cosmetic concerns were seriously on top of her list right now. Right. Priorities.

 

* * *

 

"Spill it."

Until this point, Sakura's day had been quite pleasant; as expected, working under Tsunade meant nothing else than helping out in the hospital with the post-siege situation that had kept every single medic busy. So she'd spent her day helping out the wounded, watching over procedures, giving orders, filing reports and actually being good at what she was doing. The fact she hadn't had any nightmares involving collapsing ceilings, shattered grounds and lots of corpses had been a pleasant surprise as well.

Right now however, she was having lunch with Tsunade, alone after Shizune had been called to an emergency. Well, technically one of the three of them had been called and Shizune had just been sent. Apparently not at random.

"Spill what?" Sakura asked, feigning ignorance. She did have a vague idea what this was supposed to be about... She just really didn't feel like talking about it. Not even with Tsunade-sama.

"I can tell you're pissed," Tsunade informed her, cutting the chase. "Pissed in general, and since it always comes down to me, I guess at me in particular. That's what I get from running this pony show. So. What's your problem?"

"Nothing," Sakura sighed and tried looking really busy eating.

"Don't you nothing me, young lady!" Tsunade was, of course, having none of it. "You will tell me what has you glaring at everything and everyone when you think they're not looking, or I'm taking you off duty, or something."

"I'm not..." Sakura tried to argue, but just rolled her eyes. "It's my own personal problem, it's not like anyone can help me with that." She bit back a bitter laugh. "I should just be used to it, really."

"Great, now you're being cryptic." Tsunade rolled her eyes as well. "And people wonder why I like to be drunk before noon."

"I think me being cryptic is kind of out of proportion compared to endangering lives and this whole village due to inebriation," Sakura muttered under her breath. "But that's just me."

"Wow, it's gotta be really bad if you start _sassing_ me." Tsunade seemed genuinely impressed now. "Usually, you're too scared, or at least pretend to be, and try to find a way out by just being overly polite." She pointed at Sakura with her chopsticks accusingly. "But not today, young lady!"

"It's nothing, really!" Sakura tried again, trying not to wince at the manner in which Tsunade was using her chopsticks. The downside of being raised by a mother who insisted on impeccable manners.

"Nothing doesn't try sassing me," Tsunade said, getting more irritated by the second. Okay. If she kept it up, the table would be gone and they'd be doing more evasion training for the rest of the year. Sakura did not like evasion training. That would mean she'd get beaten up every day of the week. Not in her best interest.

"Okay, okay," she relented, trying to sound as soothing as she could. "It's just that... You made Jiraiya give Kakashi and us this speech about how everything on the team has gone wrong from the get go."

"Was he wrong?" Tsunade asked, raising an eyebrow.

"No, and that's just the point," Sakura was quick to make clear. "He was right. Way too right, actually. He made me realize how... Well... Uhm..."

"How much of a complete failure Kakashi was as a sensei?" Tsunade tried finishing her sentence. "How fishy all those policies Hiruzen had for your team were? Because let me tell you, they were fishy as fuck."

"That, too." Sakura had to laugh a little. "But not exactly. Because Naruto was right, too; Sasuke-kun was the only one Kakashi ever actually paid attention to. And it was unfair, and both Naruto and I suffered from it." Now came the difficult part. Difficult because on one hand, she had to put her frustration into words. And on the other, because she had to do so without letting her anger take over and piss off Tsunade as well. Which was getting harder the more she thought about how to adequately express her problem.

"Well, yes and no," Tsunade said, leaning forwards on her chair and now paying close attention to her. "It's true, you were pretty much ignored, but that was not only Kakashi's or Hiruzen's fault. Well, Hiruzen's maybe, but that's not the point. Jiraiya did point out that you could have just _complained_ to the higher-ups, right? I hear Naruto and Hiruzen got along famously in particular."

"Things kind of happened very fast," Sakura evaded the question. "And it's not like you get briefed on how to tell someone your Genin teacher is ignoring you. To the contrary, we get taught total obedience when it comes to higher-ups..."

"With breathtaking success, apparently," Tsunade commented. "No, really. If you think we get taught that here, you've never met people from other villages. Take Kiri or Iwa for example, those guys are hardcore when it comes to obedience. We here are just lucky my grandfather was a pretty nice guy who didn't think it was too important to enslave every shinobi to the village."

"Be that as it may..." Tsunade interrupting her had made controlling her anger significantly easier. "My problem is more like... I mean..." She sighed deeply again. "All this time I was being ignored on my team, I thought that was normal. The way it was supposed to be. I never measured up anyways, so that's my lot in life. Whatever."

"If this is going where I think it is, this table is not going to survive the conversation and you will get me inebriated before the sun goes down," Tsunade warned her. "But go right ahead."

"Well, it's just that... After spending so much time here, with you and Shizune, doing stuff I'm actually good at, going back just to that is just... Hard," Sakura finally managed to get to the core of it. Albeit put a little more politely than had been her intention.

"I beg your pardon?" Tsunade’s voice was dangerously calm, making Sakura squirm in her seat.

"I-I mean... I get it..." She tried paddling back, avoiding her master's glare. "And I'm happy Sasuke-kun is back, don't get me wrong... It's just... Frustrating, you know? I mean, at least the arrangement is about both him and Naruto right now, which is better than before, and they can seriously benefit from it, I'm sure, but..." She sighed deeply. "How do I benefit from being their punching bag?"

"So let me get this straight." Tsunade sat back on her chair, folding her arms and looking at her with something close to disgust. "You are pissed because your teammates smacked you around during a training session?"

"Ah, uhm..." Sakura looked at the table with embarrassment. "Not... Exactly. It's more like I'm pissed because I'll get smacked around for the better part of the week with not a chance to preserve at least a little dignity due to being completely outclassed."

" _I beg your pardon_?" Tsunade was no positively fuming with suppressed rage.

"Well, it's true, isn't it?" Sakura had a significantly longer fuse, but this was grating on her as well. "I mean, yes, I can do a lot more than I could a year ago or so, so it's not _as bad_ as it would have been back then, but... It's still not good! Nobody benefits from this arrangement! Sasuke-kun was right, sticking me with them isn't helping at all, they'd do best with just the two of them!"

"Well with that attitude, sure," Tsunade spat at her. "I just expected more of you. This is like the fucking board all over again."

"What did you expect, exactly?" Sakura spat back. "That I suddenly discover my secret uber-powered blood line limit, or some weird external chakra source giving me super powers? I'm sorry, that's just not me! I'm practically a civilian with no benefits from my background or heritage or anything! All I will ever be able to do is the basics! And I mean, I do well with them and with what you taught me, just not in that specific team environment, and..."

"Well, for now that _specific team environment_ might give you a thicker skin," Tsunade growled, glaring at her. "I didn't train you to start whining when you lose a fight. You know, had I been complaining every time I go beaten up by my teammates, I'd be the lady serving us lunch now." The words hit Sakura harder than any blow dealt by Sasuke or Naruto ever could. Tsunade apparently saw that in her face, as she smirked before she continued. "Now, there's nothing wrong with serving lunch, mind you, if that's what you want to do with your life. I just didn't figure you the type to give in so easily. Sorry for wasting my time with you, then."

"I... That... That's not what I meant!" Sakura stammered, hands shaking. "I-I mean, you didn't waste your time with me, I'm a good medic! And a good student, and I learned so much, and..."

"Then why are we having this conversation?" Tsunade interrupted her. "If you're such a good student, surely you can figure out a way not to be a punching bag, right?" She groaned. "You know what? I think I've actually been coddling you. So has everybody else. You should have been forced to fight your teammates from the very beginning, like, I don't know, teams are supposed to do. Then instead of being bitchy about getting beaten, you'd be trying to figure out how to avoid this in the future."

"I... But..." Sakura tried collecting her thoughts. "I mean, if the fights aren't really fair now, what would they have been like..."

"It's not about fairness!" Tsunade interrupted her again, massaging her temples to fight off a headache. "It never was. And really, on paper, especially back then you should have been able to do a hell lot more than Naruto at least. Thing is, you never even tried. And now you're sitting here, being pissed at people for expecting you to try now, after all I've done for you. I mean, really?"

"I... I'm sorry..." Sakura muttered.

"You better be," Tsunade groaned. "Now listen to me, if your teammates beat you up, it's _your_ fault. You've been a fucking kunoichi for two fucking years, for heaven's sake! You should have at least figured that much out. And so what if the current arrangement is tailored to suit the Uchiha boy's needs? It's not like he's the only one who benefits from some ass-whopping. In fact, we're just reinstating the old Genin team arrangement, with some extra measures to deal with the talented kids. Are you a talented kid?"

"I... Uh," Sakura hesitated, then saw her master's scowl deepen. "Yes. Yes I am."

"Then quit whining about some bruises and use your talent to find a way to return the favor!" Tsunade barked at her. "Ugh, no wonder the Uchiha boy thinks you're emotionally compromised."

"What," Sakura said flatly, with no idea what that latter part was supposed to mean.

"He filed an official complaint after your training session yesterday," Tsunade elaborated. "About how you are too emotionally compromised to be on a team with him, because of your _feelings_ for him."

All Sakura could do was stare at her master in disbelief. Sasuke had _what_? The fact that, yes, she didn't quite measure up when it came to a fair one on one fight was one thing, but implying that she was entirely unsuited to work on the team was something completely different! It wasn't like she had pulled her punches when it came to him, at all, because she was afraid of hurting him (like she even could). Nothing she had done in the last week had even remotely been related to... Uhm... Well, maybe the whole clinging to him when he transformed had been a little motivated by those feelings she had. A little. But Naruto had done that, too! So that really didn't count. And what was that even supposed to mean? Even back when she'd been sort of useless, her best moments had always been related to her feelings for him, and...

All of this kind of made her question if she even still _had_ those to begin with.

"So how about those _feelings_ of yours?" Tsunade asked mockingly. "I mean, I totally get the 'have a crush on you hot teammate' thing. I've been there. It's kind of a social expectation for a kunoichi of your age at this point, but really?"

"I... I don't know," Sakura managed to say, swallowing down both her anger and to question Tsunade on her crush any further, because no matter what the answer was, she'd be creeped out either way. "I'd ask my _feelings_ what they are thinking, but they're too busy being pissed right now."

"Good," Tsunade said, sounding grim but not angry at her anymore. "I guess it's nice to see that _something_ still works on you. Your lunch break is over, by the way. Get back to work."

 

* * *

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry, no ass kicking this chapter :( sort of the opposite, really. 
> 
> On a somewhat related note: There's a giant flashback in correspondence to this chapter where "that fucking board" gets explained. I'll probably post it next week as a separate fanfiction called "Threatening Side Dishes" for companion pieces like this. Look at be being clever. I also probably forgot to mention that if everything goes according to plan, this is going to be a three-part series. Uhm, well actually this is a reboot of an old German fanfiction of mine that has enough content for all of seven parts and a prequel... Buuuut that's neither here nor there for now. Reboot is also kind of a big word. The old version of the first part had 19 chapters. With this chapter, chapter number 7, we have covered the ground of the first two. They, uh, kinda just ran into Oto, grabbed Sasuke, and ran out again in the first version. So if anyone feels like reading baaaad, bad writing and happens to speak German, feel free to seek that one out. I'd warn about spoilers, but honestly... Nah. 
> 
> See you in like, a week or two.


	8. Kiss With A Fist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a touching heart-to-heart with Tenten, Sakura goes to smash things.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For a little more insight into Sakura's mind and development in this, check out "Threatening Side Dishes", also published here and under my name.

Being completely overlooked and almost getting left behind on a battle field while critically injured wasn't really good for one's self-esteem, Tenten had found out.

Neither was getting accusatory looks from family members visiting you at the hospital while they were still mourning three cousins of yours that hadn't made it.Though the quota was pretty good, all things considered.

Still, how could she have dared to almost die on a not-numbered combat unit? was what she got from her humble attempts to read the minds of her visiting relatives. Tenten figured she was pretty spot-on. Maybe she had thus far undiscovered psychic powers, or something.

Well, her brother Singnan had made it back despite being on Combat Unit 2, which had had the most casualties; so clearly, her almost dying was a sign of failure and incompetence. Especially since she was supposed to be so superior compared to the rest of her family, being on a Genin team, having a career and all that.

Long story super short; Lee and Gai-sensei were her favorite visitors right now. And accomplishing that really took something.

Right now, only Lee was visiting her, since Gai-sensei had to attend some super important meeting or other, which was both good, since Lee on his own wasn't as over the top, and bad, since all his attention was focused on her.

Well, he was sweet, though. He'd have made a great nurse, had he any understanding of medicine, always making sure she had enough pillows, something to read, and enough water by her bed. Good thing, too, since the actual nurses were stressed out and not too accommodating right now, this being the aftermath of a major combat operation and all, and walking on her own still hurt like a bitch.

And she'd gotten pretty great at blocking out all the ridiculous stuff he said.

Right now he was going on about how he'd been trying to have youthful sparring matches with Neji while their team was among the many that didn't get assigned missions at the time due to being short a member, but how Neji had unyouthfully declined on the grounds of having no time. Because he was being totally busy with having no missions or training sessions right now.

And not visiting her, of course. Not that she had expected him to do so if Gai-sensei and Lee didn't make him. Neji wasn't one for sentimentalities.

She, on the other hand, was totally one for indignantly ranting with Lee about him. At least until there was a knock on the door.

"Are you ready for your check-up?" Sakura Haruno peeked inside her room. From what Tenten had gathered during her brief moments in and out of consciousness and what the nurses had told her, Sakura was kind of the medic in charge of her after bringing her in in the first place, but had other preoccupations that kept her from actually checking her up every day.

Meanwhile, Lee, being the gentleman that he was, had stood up and was now bowing in greeting.

"It is good to see you, Sakura-san!" He proclaimed enthusiastically. "You look particularly youthful today!"

"Thank you, Lee-kun." Sakura's wide smile did nothing to hide that that had been a blatant lie. She looked like shit, dark shadows under her eyes and a few bruises visible even when wearing her medical scrubs. There were also frown-lines on her face that hadn't been there the last time Tenten had seen her. Then again, they weren't exactly besties, so that had been a while. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to leave for check-up though. And visiting hours are almost over, anyways."

"I see!" Lee always was at his most stiff and polite around Sakura. It was kind of heartbreaking to watch at times, really. "I wish you a good day then." He stiffly turned around to Tenten and did one of those unnecessary bows she'd been trying so hard to make him stop doing. "And I wish you a speedy recovery!" Then he bolted out the room.

"Don't listen to a word he says," Tenten advised Sakura, sitting up with a deep sigh totally unrelated to the pain it caused her. "You look like shit."

She didn't have the highest opinion of Sakura on a good day, shrieky fan girls had always annoyed her since they were such a recurring phenomenon, they'd given all teenage kunoichis a bad name, and then there was the fact that Sakura had a last name, but no family to back it up, and was technically lacking the talent to make it on a Genin team in the first place. Rumor had it training under Tsunade had remedied that, but that just made Tenten more furious, since Tsunade had been _her_ idol first.

On the other hand, her siblings had told her that Sakura was an outstanding medic and had taught them a lot, and treated them with kindness not many system ninjas ever got from career ninjas. Tenten had never been quite sure whether that had actually been Sakura's personality and not just her unawareness of how the whole system worked, but whatever. It was just that someone who ended a close friendship on the grounds of a superficial crush _at age eight_ didn't particularly strike her as a nice or kind or even remotely likeable person.

And there was also the fact that she'd sort of saved her life. And legs. And spinal cord. As far as she'd heard, anyways.

But being a good medic didn't make anyone less of a shallow, superficial fan girl that had stolen a career from someone less emotionally compromised despite having close to no combat abilities. Therefore, when Sakura didn't react offended or screeched at her indignantly as Ino probably would have done at that comment, but merely raised her eyebrows, she rose just a tiny little bit in Tenten's regard.

"And here I thought Neji was the uncontested holder of the title 'most rude person on team'," Sakura merely replied nonchalantly, flipping through Tenten's medical records. "But you're really giving him a run for his money."

Tenten snorted.

"Might be he rubbed off on me," she admitted. "Why did you send Lee away? I don't even need to undress for this check-up stuff, and even if I had to, it's not like he hasn't seen me naked before."

"Has he now," Sakura commented dryly and pulled back Tenten's comforter to get better access to her legs, which were technically healed and not broken anymore, but still a little queasy and hurt like hell when moved.

"Don't get your panties in a twist about it, though," Tenten added, waving dismissively. "Just one of the freak things that happen when you're on a team together for almost three years." She made a pause here, then grinned maliciously. "That reminds me, rumor has it you have a team again. Way to go! How many casualties did that take, again?"

"You know, I'm not sure if that's an actual rule, or just basic common sense," Sakura started, still not half as pissed off or scandalized as Tenten would have expected her to be. "But it's generally a bad idea to piss off your medic. Can you pull up your knees for me, _please_?"

"You mean the medic that didn't bother to check on me in three days?" Tenten asked, trying not to wince, because ouch, pulling up her knees _hurt_. Bitch.

"Point," Sakura admitted, examining her knees now and sending soothing waves of green chakra through them. "Then again, after I fixed you up enough for transportation, you weren't exactly in life-threatening condition anymore. Does this hurt?" She grabbed Tenten's left leg by the ankle and pulled it straight up.

" _Yes_ ," Tenten hissed. "So what happened to mess up your pretty face so badly?"

"Let's just say the cosmetic effects of getting smacked around by your teammates are largely exaggerated," Sakura sighed. "Turn over."

Tenten rolled on her front compliantly.

"So you've been too busy getting beat up to check on me?" She surmised. "Maybe it's just me, but those are kinda shitty priorities you have going on there."

"You know, with your hair down like that and from behind, you could be Neji's more talkative but equally rude and androgynous clone," Sakura noted, her hands working their way over Tenten's spine. "So I guess his one act of compassion was more an act of narcissism, really."

Tenten almost choked and was shaken by a mean fit of coughing that sent even more pain down her spine.

"Did you just use Neji and compassion in the same sentence?" She managed to ask after a while.

"I also specified it was most likely narcissism instead," Sakura corrected, gently holding her still to further examine her spine. "Which does make a surprising amount of sense, all things considered. Does bending your back hurt in any way?"

"No," Tenten answered. "So what made you mistake it for compassion to begin with?"

"Oh, I don't know," Sakura said, and from the way her hands moved, Tenten deduced she was shrugging. "Just that he dragged me all the way to an already deserted battlefield to dig you up after the medical squad had missed that you were still alive, and looking genuinely concerned throughout."

"Did he now..." Tenten murmured wonderingly. She'd even seen less of Neji than of her attending medic ever since she'd woken up, though ensuring the survival of one's teammate didn't make one compassionate per se; just practical. Finding replacements was hard, especially after working together for almost three years.

Looking _genuinely concerned_ while doing so, on the other hand... Bleh, whatever.

"So that finally made you relax," Sakura noticed. Was she sneering at her? She was so sneering. Bitch. "Maybe I should have started this way, then. I'll keep it in mind next time you're being rude to your medic."

"Maybe I wouldn't be rude to my medic had she not _ignored me_ for that past three days," Tenten argued.

"It's not my fault I only work here part-time now and they didn't assign you another medic," Sakura defended herself. "Take that up with the hospital. Though I'd be a little more polite when complaining, since they were kind enough to put you in a room on your own. Do you know how much that usually costs?"

"Ugh, can we not talk about money?" Tenten asked. "I really don't want to know how much this hospital visit is gonna cost me. Bleh, or how we're gonna pay for it..."

"Ah, don't worry about that," Sakura instructed her. "War injuries are on the state. And since the medical squad forgot to collect you the first time around when they were sweeping over the battle field, the room is probably on the house."

"Oh, wow." Tenten laughed bitterly. "Maybe I just try getting left behind more often then, if it benefits my hospital bills."

"Well, or it might just get you killed," Sakura pragmatically observed, now working on her tailbone. "You know, when Neji isn't around to act narcissistic."

"Why do you keep bringing him up?" Tenten asked confusedly, before getting a strange idea. "Have you been talking about me with Ino?"

"I keep bringing him up because I was recently forced to spend several hours with him underground and am still trying to cope with that experience," Sakura explained. "And even though we've been on better terms recently, Ino and I don't usually talk about you, if that consoles you any." She paused, her hands examining Tenten's hip bones now. "What does Ino have to do with anything, anyways?"

"Ah, nothing." Dammit, what had she gotten herself into now? "She just occasionally suffers from delusions."

"You don't say. Turn over again." Sakura now turned her attention to Tenten's head, sending soft waves of chakra through it. "And how do any of Ino's delusions include you and... Oh." She drew that last sound out in mocking recognition, enjoying every second of it. Bitch.

"Like I said, delusions!" Tenten hurried to make sure, lest Sakura was also one of these annoying people who took way to much pleasure from making up love lives for other people.

"And would you say anything different if I now told you that this head jutsu thing I'm doing actually works as a lie detector, too?" Sakura asked her, face blank, voice completely neutral.

"No, I wouldn't," Tenten asked her without missing a beat. "How gullible do you think I am? Lie detector jutsus would make interrogations so much easier. And I've had my brother perform the same thing on me before, and he'd sure as hell have gloated about it at the very least."

"Good call," Sakura congratulated her. "I met people who fell for that."

"Above the age of seven?" Tenten asked skeptically, since, really? It had been waaay too obvious.

"You'd be surprised," Sakura just ominously stated. "Though I can't give any details since that's kind of privileged information."

"Why did you try that in the first place?" Tenten wondered. "I mean what?"

Sakura sighed deeply.

"Maybe I just like collecting potential blackmail material about my patients," she offered as an explanation.

"You see your patients naked and can glimpse into their files, detailing every major and minor fuck-up they ever had. I'm pretty sure you can come up with better stuff," Tenten countered. "I'm not about to join your little club, you know? Nu-uh, not me."

"Little club?" Sakura snorted. "Depending on your definition, it's really not that little."

"Well, most girls who spent their academy time making googly eyes at _someone_ never really made it as Genins, did they?" Tenten specified. "So it's just like, the three of you."

"To be fair, that's not the _only_ thing we ever did," Sakura defended herself, but not sounding too convinced herself. "I mean, we still did graduate as the top three Kunoichi of our class and managed to survive in the business for two years by now, so it's not like that ever got in our ways... Much." Tenten saw her biting her lips bitterly.

"Okay," she said, sitting up determinedly. "So what combination of getting beaten up by your teammates, covered in bruises and your fan girl-ness getting in your way put you in such a sucky mood today?"

"Maybe that has less to do with my personal issues and more to do with being told that I look like shit," Sakura suggested, but her tone and odd smile gave her away.

"As if you care," Tenten countered. Because if Sakura cared about her appearance right now, the conversation would have been less interesting and over for a long time at this point. She also might have considered breaking the rules and healing her bruises, or covering them up with make-up, as most Kunoichi were prone to do, but she hadn't. That had to count for something.

"I do care very much about not being insulted on a regular basis," Sakura argued, a hint of bitterness now in her voice. "Though it appears it's just something I'll have to get used to."

"Woah, hold up," Tenten demanded, raising her hands to slow her down. "I think we're getting somewhere now. What?"

"I really shouldn't be talking about this with a patient..." Sakura muttered. Tenten shrugged.

"People have been telling me I only need a check-up by an actual medic to get out of here, anyways," she recalled. "So, uh, discharge me already, or something."

Sakura flipped through her file again.

"Hm." Non-committal sounds. But at least it didn't sound like a no yet. "Well, you're almost good to go, anyways. Not quite ready yet to be put on the roster, or to do any fighting, and you'll have to go easy on your legs for a few more days, but some walking couldn't hurt..."

"Oh, it does," Tenten corrected her. "Walking hurts like a bitch."

"Well, it's not going to get any better from lying around at this point," Sakura claimed. "So, there you go, discharge papers are signed, you're free to walk home."

"Awesome." Tenten grinned. "So now you're free to talk to me. Shoot."

"...Why would I even?" Sakura looked a little weirded out by this. "I mean, since when do you care?"

Tenten didn't quite know that, either, just that somehow, she liked talking to Sakura, and she seemed to be way cooler than initially suspected. She guessed that this probably was what people referred to as character growth, or something. Whatever.

"Well, you are nice to my siblings, seem kinda cool and also, oh yeah, saved my life," Tenten explained herself, shrugging. "So I feel like I owe it to you to listen to you whine before those frown lines on your pretty face become permanent."

"I already talked about it with Tsunade, thank you very much," Sakura hissed, suddenly looking offended. "Which has kind of taken care of my need to _whine_."

"Then bitch, moan or complain about whatever's bugging you, I don't care," Tenten specified. "I'm a good listener and less likely to tear you to pieces if you say something I don't like."

"I'd kick your ass first," Sakura claimed, looking her down from head to toe skeptically.

"Right now? Probably," Tenten admitted. "When I'm in top form? I doubt it."

"Whatever." Sakura shook her head, looking exhausted instead of confrontational all of a sudden.

"Also, you kinda look like you need a friend who won't glare at you all the time for getting assigned to that team you're on," Tenten added, trying her hardest to smile reassuringly.

"We're friends now?" Sakura asked, looking positively disturbed. Tenten shrugged.

"Not really," she admitted. "But, uh, we could try?"

"I don't do the whole female friend thing well," Sakura muttered, looking at her knees. "Especially not since kind of every girl I ever talked to branded me as public enemy number one for getting on a team with Sasuke, and especially now after getting him back."

"Same here!" Tenten offered enthusiastically. "I mean, people weren't nearly obsessing about Neji as much, but I never really had female friends either. Except for my sisters, maybe. And some cousins. But they marked me public enemy number one, sort of, when I got on a career team."

"But your siblings are so nice!" Sakura protested. "Well, to me. And I don't even have a shinobi in the family, so shouldn't they be meaner to me?"

"It's weird like that," Tenten waved her concerns off. "And you are in a position of authority over them. Well, technically, so am I, but they know what I can do, while you are a mystery. To everyone who has yet to see you fight, at least."

"You've seen me fight and I'm still pretty sure what I can actually do is a mystery to you," Sakura argued, the slightest hint of a smirk on her face.

"Not that much, apparently," Tenten noted. "If you're still at the stage where your teammates beating you up gets you all gloomy like this."

"That's a stage?" Sakura asked, taken aback.

"Yeah?" Tenten replied, unsure of why this was so hard to grasp. Didn't everyone already know? "I mean, look at me, for example. I use weapons. On a team with someone who has close to 360° vision and almost impenetrable defenses, and someone so engrossed in his physical training, he's practically super-human. Even more than the rest of us. Do you think I didn't get my share of smack downs?"

"...I never thought about that," Sakura admitted, looking baffled.

"And yeah, I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to actually beat them in an all-out combat situation," Tenten continued. "But I still can make their day suck because they had to fight me. Nasty little cuts, poisons maybe, small victories like that. Occasionally, I manage to confuse them even. It's fun."

"And that doesn't bother you?" Sakura sounded surprised at the thought.

"Not really." Tenten shrugged again. "I mean, I'm a pretty good fighter regardless, the odds are just against me on that team. I also don't let them actually hit me anymore, you know? Because that's kind of annoying. Who _did_ mess you up like that, anyways?"

"Honestly?" Sakura smiled a little. "Bruises and broken bones are usually from Naruto. Sasuke mostly causes cuts and burns, and those are healed right away."

"So Naruto actually hits you," Tenten considered this for a second. "Is there any way we can subtly let Hinata-chan know about this?"

"...I beg your pardon?" Tenten wasn't quite sure if Sakura feigned ignorance or really had absolutely no idea about Hinata's way too big crush at all.

"Well, I'm just saying, it might make her day," she explained. "And, uh, maybe make her like you a little more?"

"I'm not that desperate for friends," Sakura informed her, sounding mildly insulted. Tenten grinned.

"And yet, here we are."

"Apparently."

"So are a couple of bruises really all it takes to get you down?" Tenten wasn't quite convinced. "I mean, I only saw you fight like, two times, and you got banged up pretty badly during one of those. Then again, so did Lee, fighting the same people. But afterwards, you didn't look too bothered by it."

"That was different," Sakura laughed bitterly. "And I was mostly happy because we kinda survived when I didn't expect us to. At all. But, uh, no, I guess that's not all there is to it."

"So?" Tenten edged her on. "Out with it, we don't have all day. Well, technically, I do. But don't you have other patients to neglect?"

"Well, I just had a fight with Tsunade," Sakura explained hesitantly. "And uh, it got pretty bad, my own fault for being so gloomy, really. But she also told me that Sasuke... Well... Filed an official complaint against me. On the basis that I was too emotionally compromised to be on a team with him. Because of my _feelings_."

"Asshole," Tenten concluded, disgusted. Being annoyed by shrieking fan girls fawning over you was one thing, but filing an official complaint? No matter how truthful it might be (and right now she was kinda doubting that Sakura was still emotionally compromised enough to show, if at all), that was downright insulting. "What did you do, harass him or something? Refuse to hit his pretty face?"

"Of course not!" Sakura jumped to her feet looking furious at the thought. "Is that what you think of me?"

"No," Tenten assured her quickly. "I was just looking for a legitimate reason to do this. And now I'm all out of those. So the only possibility remaining is that, yeah, he's an asshole."

For a minute, Sakura looked like she might argue, then like she had just realized something, and then she just rolled her eyes and slumped back down on the bed, sighing deeply.

"...I guess," she finally admitted. "It's just... He didn't use to be like this, this is so weird..."

"So he's finally showing his true colors, apparently," Tenten concluded. "I mean, I could have told you he was an asshole all along, you know? But nobody ever asks me."

"I never thought he was a _nice_ person per se," Sakura argued hesitantly. "It's just... his arrogance and detachedness and general asshole behavior somehow used to be _attractive_ , you know?"

"I guess." Tenten shrugged. "I always try to avoid stereotypes, like, I don't fall for assholes and kinda want to be treated okay, and really don't have a bad boy fetish."

"Calling it a _fetish_ is a little much..." Sakura claimed. "I mean, we were like, seven, eight years old when this started... Not the time to develop fetishes, is it?"

"Point," Tenten admitted. "Whatever. So where do you stand now that you discovered that your beloved is a gigantic ass?"

"I don’t know." Sakura leaned back and closed her eyes, looking even more exhausted. "I mean, I feel... Different, that of course, but... I don't know, giving up now seems weird, and... Ugh. I don't want to think about this."

"Well, to me, this sounds like the perfect time to actually get over him," Tenten said, maybe a little too eager, but if she could do her part to _end_ this fan girl phenomenon, she'd damn well do whatever it took. "Then he won't have any grounds for his complaints, either. So think about that."

"Wow," Sakura muttered. "When did this conversation turn from you telling me I look like shit to you acting like my shrink?"

"I just have a caring nature," Tenten claimed, shrugging innocently. "And you looked like you needed one. Also, you kinda saved my life, so, uh, whatever."

"Technically, that still was Neji," Sakura pointed out, smiling a little in a way that made Tenten feel slightly uncomfortable. "But whatever. Go pack your things and go home, we need this room anyways. And I should get going, since I really do have other patients to neglect."

* * *

Sakura began the next day with a new sense of determination. Maybe getting over this was as easy as Tenten had made it sound. Why Tenten of all people now went around giving her relationship advice was beyond her, but whatever. If someone made her an offer to be her friend, she'd damn well take it, and Tenten really was kind of the only girl her age she could talk to without getting glared at all the time.

She was also determined not to whine about losing fights anymore, and to follow Tenten's other piece of advice; be mean. Make them feel you, somehow. Give them hell. So she made sure to pack a few extra poisonous Kunai, of course none of the poisons were lethal, and of course she had the antidotes for all of them.

Still, a nasty surprise if she got a hit in. Which was a pretty big if. But whatever, small victories and so on. Positive thinking. Less gloomy.

That utterly failed her when she reached the training grounds and saw Sasuke, who couldn't even be bothered to look at her. Naruto was about to embrace her enthusiastically, but quickly backed away when he saw her face, which apparently screamed murder to everyone around. Everyone who bothered to look, at least. Looking was important.

"Well then," Jiraiya had appeared on the training grounds, rubbing his hands. "Let's get going then, before you brats annoy me, alright?"

"Where's Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked. "Or is he just late again from now on?"

"No, I guess it's gonna be a while until he pulls that on me," Jiraiya mused. "He's on a mission for the rest of the week, gathering intelligence. Nothing you guys need to concern yourselves with. Yet."

Apparently, Sakura wasn't the only one who felt like being cryptic today.

"So, sparring." Jiraiya looked around encouragingly, apparently taking no notice of whatever had Naruto so scared of her. "Any volunteers? No? Okay then. You two are up first." He pointed at Naruto and her. Less than ideal; the injuries Naruto inflicted were the ones that bothered you the most, but weren't serious enough to be healed right away. Also, the bruises he'd left two days prior still weren't completely faded, though Sakura was noticing them less and less.

It turned out that poisoning Naruto really wasn't the best strategy to win against him; first of all, all her attempts to do so mostly hit his Bunshin, which he was using on her excessively, probably because he knew she had no problem fending off crowds and thought it would be the nice thing to do. Or maybe because he also knew that in close combat without his Rasengan or any other fancy techniques, he'd probably be at a disadvantage on his own.

Oh, and he'd seen Tsunade punch things. And her punching things. And probably wanted to spare himself the pain. That was a good explanation as well.

But like before, even though she fought well for a while and did get a few hits in on the real Naruto, even cut him with a poisoned Kunai once or twice, this was apparently not the way to beat him; she didn't even get in one of the good hits to send him out of area, and the poison didn't seem to affect him much at all; just like it hadn't worked on the Juin people underground unless used excessively. So after about half an hour, when she was out of breath for a second, Naruto and/or his clones managed to push her out of bounds; comparatively gently, even.

"You okay there?" Jiraiya asked, sounding almost concerned.

"I'm fine!" Sakura claimed and got up again, rubbing her outer thigh where the Narutos had hit her. "Just inattentive for a second, badly done, I know."

"Yeah, well." He gestured towards Sasuke. "You're up, you take a break, girlie."

And she was back to watching Naruto and Sasuke fight again. Which was one of her least favorite parts about this day already. Well, she didn't exactly look forward to losing against Sasuke again, but at least having the opportunity to maybe make him hurt a little was appealing. More appealing than watching him and Naruto hurt each other. Again. And no, it didn't matter that they technically couldn't use lethal blows; Sasuke had gotten around that rule already, though today he showed no signs of wanting to use his electricity jutsus again. Instead, after using his sword for a while, which Naruto blocked with a Kunai or Bunshin or whatever he felt like at the time, both of them suddenly stood very still and didn't move for a few seconds.

"What are they doing?" Sakura asked confusedly.

"I have an idea," Jiraiya grunted, severely displeased. "Bastard."

And sure enough, upon closer inspection, Sasuke's eyes had not only turned red, but seemed to be spinning a little as well, just as Naruto started making himself comfortable on the ground and taking a nap.

"Isn't that cheating?" Sakura asked.

"Not really," Jiraiya answered, sounding unconvinced of this himself. "And it would be kind of a dick move to teach the boy what to do with his fancy eyes and then forbid him to ever do that in training. Kind of like giving him a teacher with Sharingan and never teaching him anything about them."

"I think we're done here," Sasuke called over, smirk in place. Before, that smirk would have made Sakura swoon. Right now, it made her fists itch to wipe it off his face.

"You don't say," Jiraiya shot back. "Carry him over here. You didn't fuck up his mind permanently, did you?"

"Only put him to sleep," Sasuke explained. "Wouldn't do to lose the only capable training partner around."

Okay. That did it. Now she didn't only have an itch in her fists, now she had to actively fight them from punching something _right now_ , fully knowing that whatever she'd punch wouldn't be there anymore after. But no, it wouldn't do to blow all of her power now, especially after she had just lost to Naruto. Oh no. She had to keep her reserves replenished. But oh, if she could get a hit in, oooh, would she enjoy that...

"Go get him," Jiraiya encouraged her quietly when Sasuke set down Naruto just outside the designated fighting area. She got up, not too quickly, she didn’t want to seem overeager, and tried her best to nonchalantly strut to the center of the fighting area, pulling on her gloves as she went. So even if he did wipe the floor with her, she'd at least make _something_ hurt before this was over.

When Jiraiya gave the sign, she threw two poisoned Kunai at Sasuke as quickly as she could, but of course he blocked them with no trouble, using his sword to deflect them as she'd hoped. Good. That gave her the time to rush towards him, attempting to punch him, but he side stepped so she would have gone tumbling down onto the ground, a significant amount of chakra in her punch, had she not taken all that out of her hand in the last second and turned the momentum into a front handspring. Thus, she evaded Sasuke's first sword lunge and upon turning back towards him flung a few more poisoned kunai and some needles at him, which he dodged by doing a somersault to the side, sword extended, very fancy, and managed to form the hand signs for one of his fire attacks almost instantaneously. Sakura managed to dodge the resulting ball of fire as well, doing a few flic-flacs, but then froze when she heard the crackling of lightning, announcing a Chidori or a variant thereof.

Before even properly thinking this through, she punched open the ground, a giant crack forming where Sasuke had been about to jam in his sword to electrocute her and end this fight quickly. Now, the sword didn't make contact, and Sasuke stumbled, taken aback by his sudden loss of footing.

She only needed this one moment of hesitation to channel all the anger, hurt and frustration he had caused her over the last two years, and during those last two days especially, into _one punch_ , met his jaw with an extremely satisfying crunch and sent him flying, _flying_ far over the boundaries, made him hit the floor, bounce off, fly some more, until he started rolling, tried to stop himself by thrusting his sword into the ground, lost grip on it, and tumbled backwards until he hit a tree with an equally satisfying _thump_ , making a few leaves come off.

Sakura breathed heavily. Damn, that felt _good_. Almost as good as the completely dumbstruck expression Naruto, who had just woken up from whatever Sasuke had done to him, was wearing, and Jiraiya swallowing slightly uncomfortably, but not looking surprised at all. Well. He'd been on the receiving end of these kinds of punches numerous times, so he'd probably seen this coming miles away.

She felt really good about herself, more satisfied than she had in years, until she finally looked at Sasuke again, who was sitting up, rubbing his jaw where she had punched him, and looked... Well... Uhm... He looked... Kind of... Like... Well... _Appreciative_ was the least assuming word she could think of at the moment. Completely livid, too, but nevertheless, the smirk he was regarding her with sent shivers down her spine and made her knees buckle _and wasn't she over this what was going on_.

"D-Do I win?" She managed to ask into the general direction of Jiraiya, not quite succeeding in tearing her gaze away from _that goddamn smirk_. "Can I go now?"

"Uhm, sure, girlie," Jiraiya answered, looking somewhat amused. "Take the day off, or something."

She bowed half-heartedly towards him for politeness' sake, then ran off. This was not happening. The mental image of Sasuke's goddamn smirk did _not_ make her blush, did _not_ make her heart beat faster than it should even after training, did _not_ make her knees feel weak and did _not_ upset her stomach quite as much as it seemed. She must have caught the flue or something. This was not happening. She was _over_ this, goddammit!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we go. Wheee! Tenten is alive and well! Sort of. Sakura finally overcame her funk and punched Sasuke! Sort of. And in two weeks, you're going to get Sasuke's POV. Not on this, but on things. Also more talking. Because that's what we do here, talk a lot.


	9. The (After) Life Of The Party

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A few days after his less than triumphant return, Sasuke shows signs of a sudden illness. Meanwhile, Tenten has to deal with lots of awkwardness.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Our broadcast has been delayed due to the author having to deal with family stuff and the horrible burden of turning 21. We would like to apologize for the inconvenience and the fact that there is yet again a Fall Out Boy song in the title. We are working on adding some variety.
> 
> Now for a word from our sponsors since there has apparently been some confusion regarding rather sensitive issues: this fanfiction is not meant to make you hate either Sakura or Tenten, or to promote that disliking a character automatically means they deserve to die in a pretty horrible way. Sakura is not confused as to WHAT a complaint against her is, she is confused as to WHY Sasuke would file one at this point in time. Male teammates beating female teammates in sparring matches is not violence against women and thus does not turn them all into women beaters, that would require the violence to be related to the fact that they are women, and they all beat male teammates in sparring matches all the time as well. It's equal opportunity sparring. And yes, I do like Sakura. I like her very much. 
> 
> Thank you for the attention, this was bitchy author rant abridged. For the full 3 page version, feel free to contact me. Now without further ado, please enjoy our regularly scheduled if slightly delayed broadcast.

Chapter 9

 

_I’m a stitch away from making it  
And a scar away from falling apart_

 

The next time Sakura saw Sasuke at training two days later, he looked significantly less pleased. He was pale, bordering on ashen, and had deep, deep shadows under his eyes as if he hadn't slept in days. He also seemed to be shaking slightly, his eyes darting around just a little as if he was having a hard time to keep them focused on anything.

"Uh..." Naruto shot Sasuke a worried glance. "Are you okay?"

Sakura however had just about all her medical instincts triggered at once, outweighing any animosity or confusion about some stupid feelings she might have for him completely, and approached Sasuke for a check-up without even waiting for an answer.

"I'm _fine_ ," Sasuke hissed, his voice strangely hoarse even when doing so. He tried to slap her hands away while she was trying to get his temperature, which wasn’t all that effective since they were shaking violently.

"No you're not," Sakura pointed out, one hand pinning his in place, the other on his clammy forehead. "That's a very high fever at least. Are you cold? And you must be feeling really dizzy, how did you even make it here on your own?" She continued to examine him, all while he tried pushing her hands away, but no longer possessing the strength to actually move them.

"Sakura-chan, what's wrong with him?" Naruto asked, looking extremely worried.

"I don't know..." She murmured. Sasuke had stopped his struggles and was now simply shaking and staring into space, even though his eyes didn’t remain focused on anything for long. A fever was usually just the indicator of an even bigger problem with the patient; a small one might have been an after-effect of the lung damage he had sustained not long ago, the speedy recovery from which she still couldn't explain. Maybe it had to do with his cursed seal.

That had caused a high fever when he first received it too, right? Back then she thought it must have been from the pain, or maybe from his body trying to fight off a poison, but after seeing him in close to perfect shape a few hours later, she had stricken that from her diagnosis. Sakura pushed back his shirt a little to examine the mark on his neck, which didn't look any different, yet running her fingers over his heated skin where the Juin was made him wince.

"Has your cursed seal been acting up again?" She asked. Sasuke just shook his head, a simple act that seemed to cost him a lot of strength for some reason. It also made him stagger.

"Woah!" Naruto rushed to their side and supported Sasuke immediately, who didn't look to appreciate it but, yeah, had no way to fight back at the moment.

"Okay, brats, ready for..." Jiraiya apparently just made his flashy entrance on the scene, but had gone unnoticed, as his students were a little preoccupied at the moment. "What the hell is going on?"

"Sasuke is ill," Sakura answered out of reflex. This was also the phrase with which Tsunade usually entered the emergency room and demanded quick reports. "High fever, slow reflexes, shaking, severely lowered blood pressure and dizziness. I can't say what exactly the cause is yet, but there are no signs of external causes, so my best guess is some kind of infection or other kind of disease."

"If you say so." This was the first time she had heard Jiraiya sound even remotely concerned. "So I guess training is cancelled for the day, get him to the hospital, or whatever's necessary."

"No!" Sasuke hissed weakly and frantically tried to struggle against the hands supporting him. "I'm not here for... Hospital... I..."

"It's not like you can put up much of a fight right now!" Naruto pointed out what was obvious to apparently all but Sasuke. "I mean, sure, Sakura-chan and I can both push you out of bounds once if you want to fight so badly, or just let you drop to the floor and point a weapon at you, but seriously? Doesn't look like a good idea to me."

"Which is why we won't do any of that," Sakura felt the need to stress, since she could see that Naruto was seriously considering this and Sasuke still persisted on ineffectively fighting them off. "We will get you to the hospital now, where they have labs and equipment for diagnostics and a lot of ways to help you, and then you'll be back on your feet in no time..."

But that just made Sasuke fight back even more ferociously, making it hard to keep him still despite his weakened state. For a moment, Sakura was at a loss what to do next, Naruto of course had no clue either, and even Jiraiya was entirely unhelpful, until a sudden presence made her hairs stand up straight and sent a shiver down her spine.

_Oh no_.

A purple aura started emanating from Sasuke, black swirls spreading from where his cursed seal was. More out of reflex than anything else, Sakura reached into her weapon's pouch and withdrew a needle from the sedative section, jamming it into Sasuke's carotid for extra fast diffusion. She engraved another one into the center of the cursed seal just for good measure.

And luckily enough, the dosage was enough to sedate him almost immediately, calming down the cursed seal as well, and making Sasuke collapse completely.

"Well then." Jiraiya tried sounding aloof as usual, but Sakura could tell that he was deeply concerned by what had just happened as well. "I guess that makes transportation a lot easier."

* * *

Training was awkward. Like, more awkward than usual and for different reasons. For one thing, Tenten really, really wasn't in her best form right now, lo and behold, lying around with spinal cord injuries did nothing to help on that front. And also, training meant Neji. Who hadn't interacted with her in any way other than nodding at her when she showed up for the first regularly scheduled Team Gai training session ever since the... Uh, war? Siege? Siege followed by ambush? Officials still had to come up with a name for their epic destruction of Oto and friends. If they were to have a vote on it, Tenten would go for 'business outing with unforeseen casualties'. That summed it up pretty well. Right after 'The Epic Rescue of Princess Uchiha'. But that would never fly with the officials.

Anyways, being around Neji right now was weird in a way it shouldn't be. Somehow, Tenten felt the need to talk to him about stuff. Stuff like saving her life and looking genuinely concerned while doing so. Stupid Sakura, why did she have to say crap like that? And then rub it in any chance she got, ugh. Bad enough that Ino had to torment her every time they hung out (which wasn't that often to begin with) by telling her that she totally had to like someone. No. No she did not have to do that. Gaaah. And she didn't need weird thoughts about Neji in her head that made her look for clues or anything, either. It was unprofessional. And so far, she had taken a lot of pride in being professional, especially when it came to having pretty team mates. Uhm. One pretty team mate. Though one should never underestimate the way Lee-kun and Gai-sensei looked below the neck and above the waist with the green spandex off. Whatever. Right now, those two weren't around to distract her anymore anyways.

No, only she and Neji were left on the training grounds. Her because she had gone all-out with summoning weapons, since she'd be winning no prices for agility anytime soon, and him because some of those weapons had left scratches when she had caught him off-guard and he was now busy patching them up. The simple fact that she had been able to catch him off-guard made her feel bitter more than proud though; it kind of showed that he hadn't taken her seriously. Well, she wasn't at the height of her physical ability, but that didn't make her as harmless as he had apparently assumed her to be, seeing how all the times she actually managed to wound him had been standard situations in which he usually would have been able to evade. Oh well. He was the one bleeding now, not her, so not her problem. She just had to clean his blood off her stuff now, something that didn't happen too often, either.

So there they were, her sitting with her ass firmly on the ground, in the shade of some big tree that had somehow survived standing next to a ninja training ground long enough to grow big, carefully wiping the blood off the tip of a naginata. A Tomoegata Naginata, to be exact, those were the fanciest with their curved blades. She'd saved the biggest and most awkward to clean thing she'd used today for last; around her, organized in neat piles and waiting to be resealed, were lying several kunai, shuriken, senbon and swords in varying shapes and sizes, already clean and glistening in the sunlight breaking through the tree top. And just a little off to her left, Neji was stoically applying a bandage to his left shin where she had nicked him enough times to warrant a proper bandage instead of just Band-Aids.

And the awkward silence between them was deafening.

It didn't use to be like that; before whatever what went down was called went down, they'd been able to spend entire days in comfortable silence together (as boring as they were, stake-out missions with Neji were the best kinds of stake-out missions. He'd do all the watching from a hotel room a few miles away, and you just had to run to the scene once the target got dressed, if even then, and got to sleep or do whatever throughout), but right now, she felt compelled to say something. She just had no idea what. 'Thanks for saving my life and not gloating about it'? 'So how come you were able to drag someone to dig me out of an abandoned battle field, but didn't have it in you to show up at my sick bed for five minutes? Where was your _genuine concern_ then'? Yeah, that would go over brilliantly. Blergh.

"So I heard you had a brief stint in history," she finally got out. "Look at you, spiriting away Uchiha again with the big people." She paused, considering her phrasing there. "Well, I suppose it would be spiriting back Uchiha, or something. Second attempt? Whatever."

"What does that have to do with history?" He asked without looking up from bandaging his leg. He was always very serious when it came to applying bandages, very slow and very thorough. Even if they were just cosmetic and not meant to have any medical purpose at all. Watching him work on them was kind of... Mesmerizing.

...Did she really just think that?

"Oh, I dunno," she said, sighing in annoyance with everything while examining her naginata in the sunlight. Yep, it was clean alright. Tenten started twirling the large weapon around a bit; that usually calmed her nerves. "Maybe because under close inspection, it kinda seems like the whole shebang was nothing more than a very elaborate rescue mission."

"Oto and its outliers posed a threat to the village's security," Neji said monotonously. "We were dispatched to deal with that threat. Getting back the Uchiha was a side-effect, a mission assigned to just two people. So no, the whole shebang was not about him." He cleared his throat. "And neither was my involvement."

Well, good to see he still had to be a pedantic stick in the mud about everything. During this little lecture, he had finished bandaging his leg and was now moving on to his right lower arm. The shallow cuts she had left there had bled only a little, blood running down his arms in tiny streaks that formed a funny crisscross pattern. A rapidly congealing crisscross pattern actually, the required a wet rag more than an actual bandage, to be honest, but that didn't keep Neji from awkwardly trying to apply one anyways, using only his left hand and his teeth.

Tenten flung her Naginata aside to join the other weapons for sealing later, got up, and without a word marched over to where Neji was now sitting on a tree stump, extremely focused on getting the bandage done. And though she knew he would get it done on his own sooner or later, she gently pulled the bandage from his grip (and bite) and started applying it herself. This, she was used to. They often fixed each other’s wounds or hair or clothing like this, in a comfortable and silent routine. It came with the territory; they had been working together closely for almost three years by now after all.

"So, uh..." She tried starting a conversation again. "I had a chat with Haruno while I was hospitalized." Neji showed no reaction to that. Okay then. "Seems like you managed to annoy her so much, she grew some kind of backbone or something. Congrats."

"I wouldn't call it a backbone," he scoffed. "She is just marginally less useless when given instructions and then gets offended for some reason."

"Like when you told her to dig me out of an abandoned battlefield?" She asked, not too subtly, but kind of glad for the opening. Neji tensed a little, too little to notice unless you were holding his arm in your hands and had been spending the last three years anticipating his movements in sparring matches.

"She told you about that?" He then asked, his voice a little strained.

"Sure did," Tenten confirmed, licking her lips nervously. "Thanks, by the way."

"Don't mention it," he was quick to wave such a minor thing like _saving her life_ off. "It was sloppy work by the medics."

"Yes it was," she agreed, trying to sound nonchalant. "You still saved my life. So thank you."

"Haruno did all the work," he almost mumbled. Huh. Hyuuga Neji didn't mumble, he spoke clearly and with utmost confidence, of course, but this... Really was more of a mumble.

"True, you just gave her instructions," Tenten said, a small smile creeping on her face for whoever knew why. This whole conversation was weird. At least she was almost done with his arm. "So, what did make you meddle in their mission to begin with?"

"Hinata-sama," he answered. "To Haruno's credit, she also made the authorities disregard that we all practically deserted our posts to run to their aid. She and Uzumaki were the ones sent to retrieve Uchiha, and got themselves in a pinch. So Hinata, due to her misguided crush on the boy, just ran off to help, and of course then I had to make sure she'd get back in one piece. Inuzuka and Aburame insisted on coming along."

That made sense. Ever since he'd gotten his hatred for his cousin out of his system, and had sort of risen in his uncle's esteem, Neji had been appointed Hinata's unofficial bodyguard of sorts. Not that she needed one, mind you, Hinata could totally take care of herself. Just, when you had a scary looking cousin behind you glaring daggers at everyone who dared approach you in public, well, let's just say that did help her stay out of trouble. A lot. And Hinata was very prone to getting herself into trouble by just being too fucking nice to everyone who dared approach her. Literally _everyone_. Also, at her age, being seen with a chaperone in public just came with the territory of being heiress to what was probably _the_ most important (and pompous) clan in the village.

"Heh, misguided crush," she chuckled, tucking in the loose end of the bandage after a job well-done. "You say that like it's the exception. Isn't every crush in our profession ultimately misguided?" Wait a minute, where did that come from?

When she didn't receive and immediate answer, she looked up from Neji's arm, only to find her looking at her directly with a somewhat blank expression. What.

"Yes," he then finally answered. "Yes, it is." Then he withdrew his arm from her grip and stood up. "Thank you." He nodded at his bandaged arm and trotted off, leaving a very confused Tenten behind.

Okay. What the hell?

* * *

He didn't even realize he had been sleeping until he sensed he was waking up, like breaking through a heap of soft cushions for a desperately needed breath of air. No nightmares, though. No dreams of any kind. If he was actually awake. The cushion hadn't left his head. Everything seemed to be spinning. No matter.

Dizziness did not completely override training and instinct. If waking up under undetermined conditions, always assess surroundings first, without alerting the enemy to your consciousness.

There were sheets wrapped around him. The sheets were clammy. The air was humid. Temperature simultaneously too high and too low. Pain in every general area he could assess, internal and not life threatening at the moment.

Luminosity through eyelids indicated night time. Night time? Odd. It had been day last he remembered. Bed wasn't his own. Not the one at home. Not one of the numerous ones he'd been assigned at the Oto bases, either. But it felt somewhat familiar still. The smell was familiar, too. A heavy scent of sweat overshadowed the uncomfortable smell sterility caused.

Moving increased general pain. And didn't work too well, even in the subtle ways he used while feigning sleep to get a better grasp of his surroundings. Something bit into his flesh on his wrists and ankles. Restraints?

Sasuke tentatively opened his eyes. Hospital room. Small one, single room, dark. Angle of moonlight falling through curtains indicated it was between two and four in the morning. Sharp pain in right hand was an infusion then. Indention on right hand side. Steady movement. Breathing? Most likely.

He tried to sit up slightly. Yes, those actually were restraints, chaining him to the bed with all four limbs. No actual chains, though. Softer material, some kind of fabric.

Indention on right hand side actually was breathing. A medic, according to the clothing. And to the fact they were allowed to stay at the hospital past visiting hours. Light hair. Figure not indicative of gender. Light hair was relatively short, but also not indicative of gender, especially not in Konoha. Leaf symbol on wall to the right indicated he was at a hospital in Konoha. Good. Had someone managed to abduct him, it would have been most inconvenient. And also served to make Konoha look like even bigger fools than they already were. Though that wasn't too hard.

Bits of memory came back to him; he'd caught some kind of cold, yes. And his teammates had freaked about it for some reason. Fools. As if a cold could keep him down.

General level of pain and state of hospitalization indicated a more severe illness than a cold, though. Hospital vacancies were sparse and not available to those not in dire need of them at the moment, from what he understood. Ugh, another setback. First that ridiculous injury everyone insisted on bringing up time and again, and now this. People in Konoha were so sensitive. Kabuto would have simply given him a shot and he'd have been up for training again immediately. Shame about him. He had been useful to have around.

Sudden anger shot through him as he remembered how Kabuto died. Or rather, how his teammates claimed he had died. His brother had been there. So close. And he hadn't even noticed.

No, this hospitalization wouldn't do. There was nothing _that_ wrong with him. The flue, maybe. Even idiots like the Konoha medical squad had to have something against that, surely. They were just blowing everything out of proportion.

He tried getting up again, fighting against his restraints. This was getting repetitive. He didn't appreciate repetitions unrelated to training. Especially when they actually prevented him from training. But pulling too hard sent a sharp and raw kind of pain all throughout his body. He had to muffle a scream of pain by biting his lips. Dammit. Now he'd woken the medic.

Sakura. Of course. Who else. The thought of her actually being a medic now was strange. No matter. Not like he hadn't seen that coming. Not many places to go with no abilities but chakra control. Her reaction time was slow, though, Pathetically slow. She looked tired. Unprofessional.

"Sasuke!" She shrieked then, jumping to her feet, causing even more unnecessary noise that made him flinch. Oh, and she'd dropped the suffix. Whatever that was supposed to indicated. "Lie back down immediately, how are you feeling?"

"Fine." Not bad enough to be hospitalized at least. She just rolled her eyes. Seeing her do that was somewhat unnerving, not the kind of treatment he was used to from her. Oh, well. He wasn't used to getting punched by her, either. Both developments were annoying for him, but to her advantage. And made her more agreeable as a training partner. Not even close to ideal, though.

"As if," Sakura positively snorted. Her attitude would be a welcome change, if it wasn't always directed at him. This way, it was just unnecessary trouble. "Do you even know what's wrong with you?"

"I'm chained to a hospital bed because of a fucking cold," he replied, trying to fight his restraints without damaging his wrists and ankles any further. "That's what's wrong."

"A cold?" She laughed bitterly. "Right, Sasuke. These usually make you pass out and get acromyotnia - muscle cramps in your extremities - and all the other funny things you had once you were sedated. A cold. Awesome diagnosis."

"How could I pass out if you _sedated_ me?" He pointed out a flaw in her story. Sedation explained the cushioning feel in his head, though. So that was nothing to worry about either.

"It's been a steady cycle for the last few hours," Sakura elaborated. "I first sedated you when you started transforming. Then you briefly regained consciousness when we were taking blood for testing, had some sort of fit and knocked out two nurses before you passed out again. That's when we decided to restrain you. Then we woke you up after you had been fighting so badly against the restraints in your sleep that you were bleeding through. Which caused your cursed seal to activate _again_ , and since we really can't deal with that here, we had to sedate you once more. You've been in and out of consciousness a few times since then, and in dire need of the emesis basin, which, by the way, also doesn't usually happen from mere _colds_."

He didn't remember any of this. Though he couldn't help but feel a small sense of pride at being able to knock out two nurses while practically unconscious. Even those usually had basic Genin training.

"So if it's not a cold, what is wrong with me then?" He asked. "And more importantly, when do I get out? I have training to do."

Sakura looked at him as if he had just told a mildly amusing joke that had been in very poor taste. Or at least he assumed that's how people would look at him if he ever did so.

"Sasuke, you're suffering from drug withdrawal," she then said, like she pitied him or something. Wait, drugs?

"What are you talking about?" In his recent memory, she'd been the only person to drug him. If sedation counted there. And he was sure that the sedatives used by medics usually didn't cause withdrawal symptoms. At least not in the dosages that were given to patients.

"It seems like Orochimaru has been administering you a combination of steroids and amphetamines and maybe even something else we haven't been able to figure out yet for quite some time, and in ever increasing dosages," she explained further. "Since especially amphetamines need to be increased steadily as the body builds resistances there rather quickly. Did you know about this?"

"I assumed," he admitted. He'd grown half a foot in his first year at Oto, which might have been explained away by a growth spurt. But that did not explain the drastic increase in muscle mass and general physical capability. Drugs did. That's what you got for not preparing your own meals, apparently. "So what?"

"So what?" She jumped from her chair, sounding horrified. " _So what_? Sasuke, just look what this did to you!"

"It _did_ deliver results," he snapped back. "As you know."

"And all of these results are gone now!" She was being unreasonably loud considering the hour. Wasn't this supposed to be a hospital? "Your body is extremely weak now, and you're not even close to completely detoxicated yet. And all we can do is treat the symptoms, since we have no idea what exactly you took and just adding more drugs to your system on wild guesses is going to be counterproductive, to say the least."

"And this wouldn't have happened had you just _left_ me where I was," Sasuke pointed out.

"Yeah, sure." Now she was getting sarcastic in addition to being hysteric. What had he ever done to deserve this? "They just would have continued to make you take this stuff, making you a _drug addict_ , Sasuke. Do I need to tell you the long-term effects of substance abuse and addiction? Do I?"

Fuck no.

"Orochimaru was planning on taking over my body once I was strong enough," Sasuke informed her. "Do you think he would have permanently damaged it?"

"Well, what can I say, seeing is believing, after all," she snapped and gestured towards his restrained body. "My guess is they gave you this stuff for the immediate effect to make you think their training methods were superior, and were planning to slowly lower the dosages when the time came near." Which was admittedly a fair point, but completely irrelevant.

"And what would I care about long-term effects, anyways?" He asked her. She froze, stared at him in absolute horror for a moment, and then slumped back down into her chair again, massaging her temples as if to fight off a headache.

"Really, Sasuke?" She then sighed. "Really? I mean, I know all you care about right now is killing your brother sometime in the foreseeable future, but really? You'd want to live in a practically crippled body afterwards?"

"If that's what it takes," he hissed. "As you said, I don't _care_ about anything else."

"So how long do you think it's gonna take to achieve that?" She asked, somewhat quieter now. Good. That meant she was admitting defeat and would stop getting on his nerves soon.

"Significantly longer since you've abducted me," he pointed out. "Especially with _this_ now going on."

"Right, sure, whatever." Then why couldn't she just stop talking. He knew she didn't get it, but did she have to be all preachy about it? This was the path he had chosen, why couldn't they just all leave him alone? "So if Orochimaru was after your body, do you really think he would have let you leave to go on a quest of undetermined duration to kill your brother and risk losing you first?"

"I had a plan," Sasuke informed her flatly. As if he'd ever really let Orochimaru have his way with him, anyways.

"And how did that plan involve the continued consumption of drugs you didn't even know you were on?"

Well, considering how he'd only just found out about those, she probably knew the answer. Of course there had been no drugs involved in his plan at the time, so what was the point of this nagging? He remained silent. She just sighed again.

"That's what I thought." Of course. So why waste breath on asking? "Just so you know, the continued consumption of amphetamines causes stimulant psychosis; paranoia, hallucinations, delusions, all the fun stuff. The withdrawal symptoms don't actually help that; once your nervous system is wrecked, it's wrecked. Steroid withdrawal wouldn't help, either. Just make you even more physically inept. You're currently experiencing the 'crashing' period, with significant medical aid no less. Just imagine experiencing that while hunting down your brother. How did you even expect to find him, while we're at it?"

"I had a plan," Sasuke repeated himself. "This conversation is pointless."

"You're right, it is," Sakura finally relented. "So let's just deal with the things as they are now. How high is the probability you'll knock me out and go all cursed seal on me if I loosen your restraints now?"

"Increasing with every word you say," he grumbled, rolling his eyes. Which hurt.

"Woah, tone down on the charm, you're making my knees wobble," she said dryly, but entirely unfazed by his statement. Since when was she making jokes like this? Apparently she caught his puzzled gaze, as she gave him something close to a smirk and continued: "What, it's 3 AM and I'm still at work. And I've had way too many patients disrespecting me recently to even care anymore. Well, you've just kind of been disrespecting me all the time, so I gave up on caring what you think especially. So let me just say what's on my mind, okay?"

If that managed to fool her, sure. It probably would die down eventually anyways. And what did he care.

"If the hour bothers you so much, why don't you just go home?" He instead asked. Maybe he could get someone less chatty to take care of him. "You're not the only medic in Konoha now, are you?"

"No, but I do have a monopoly on teammates," she answered. "So I'm probably the only medic you're going to get for the time being. Oh, and during your fits of cursed seal mode, we figured out you react to my voice," she added, smiling smugly as she undid the restraints on his right ankle.

Huh. Did he. Weird. Then again, most things related to his Juin were a little weird. No matter. It made him stronger, and that was all that counted.

"Well, reacting might be a little much," Sakura amended while engulfing the raw-chafed flesh around his ankle in a soothing green glow. "But it certainly does _distract_ you long enough to sedate you."

"Do you have a point?" Sasuke groaned. Couldn't she just do her job and leave him alone already? The green light made him dizzy. And while his one ankle hurt less, everything else started hurting more.

"Not really," she admitted, nonplussed, finishing the healing process and then applying new restraints, before moving on to his other leg. "Just trying to make polite conversation, you know? Oh wait. You don't, right. So sorry to bother you."

He just groaned and slumped back into his still clammy sheets. Sobbing and useless Sakura had been so much better. At least back then, she had shut up and left him alone when he glared hard enough. The passive-aggressive version of her, that actually had a legitimate reason to stick around his sick bed, seemed to be like some sort of cruel punishment by comparison.

"So how are you _actually_ feeling right now?" She continued her pointless chatter when she had worked her way up to his left wrist.

"Annoyed," he answered, without really thinking about it.

"Nothing new there," she noted with a hint of bitterness. "And hey, we finally have something in common! So now make this short and tell me something more _medical_ for me to work with."

"Tired," he complied, rolling his eyes. "Dizzy. In a lot of pain."

"Hm." She put a hand on his forehead. "Your fever is down a little. Are you nauseous at all?"

"No," Sasuke answered. He also didn't feel like he had anything left to throw up even if he were. "Are the restraints really necessary?"

"You have no idea," she said darkly. "Besides transforming and knocking out nurses, you toss around like crazy, and at several times have actively tried to hurt yourself in your sleep. We're trying to keep the blood loss to a minimum, okay? The restraints stay."

He was aware that he wasn't the most sound sleeper. Hard to miss, actually. But he had never hurt himself or others before in his sleep, so that was new. Maybe drug withdrawal related? No matter.

Sakura meanwhile was done reattaching his restraints, and the lack of pain in his wrists and ankles made him acutely more aware of the general pain he was in from the inside. So he focused on the outside, and watched Sakura finally leave. Without a word. Which probably meant she wouldn't be gone for long. And sure enough, she was back in five minutes with a rolling table hat carried a set of fresh sheets and a water basin.

"Because you really need to get cleaned up," she informed him when spotting his incredulous gaze.

"I can do that myself," he tried shooting her down, turning away his face as she approached with a wash cloth.

"Sure you could," she agreed. "You could also go all cursed seal on me, or pass out while doing so, or whatever. Don't worry, I'm not gonna strip you down or anything, I'm just cleaning off dried blood and... Other stuff."

He decided he didn't want to know what she meant by that and just accepted his fate. And really, as soon as she started cleaning, her chattering died down as well. Maybe she'd grown tired. Or maybe she had realized that it decreased her efficiency. Either way, he liked the result.

The cold wet cloth on his skin as she rhythmically dabbed away whatever gore there was, was also oddly soothing. It served as a distraction from the pain, and the rhythm calmed him down more than he would have liked.

Quiet as she was now, there was also something... Mesmerizing about watching Sakura doing her work. It was weird to see her so focused and to serious. Like she entered a completely different world. Or maybe the drug withdrawal was getting to his head. Probably that.

Nevertheless, he couldn't deny the positive effect this had on his condition. Odd. Usually he hated people fussing over him. Though she didn't exactly leave him a choice here. He hated being touched even more, especially in the face, due to the sensitivity of the area; the only place worse was his neck. Yet when Sakura started wiping off the grime from his face, he didn't feel threatened.

This was Sakura. Sakura was not a threat. Not to him. Not really. And especially not in a hospital. Maybe that's why his juin form reacted to her voice in some way.

When she was done, she smiled again, not her smug or provocative smile. And not her outside world fake smile, either. Her _real_ kind of smile. Or maybe she was just tired. Whatever.

"That's better, huh?" She then said, the smugness returning to her. And while it did somewhat suit her, he still didn't like it being directed at him. "Not sniping at each other for a moment and all that."

He didn't dignify that with a response. He didn't _snipe_ at her. Sakura meanwhile removed his still clammy blanket and replaced it with a new one she'd brought with the water. She did the same with his pillow, tucked him in and then sat down on her chair by his bed again.

"Sorry about the bed sheet," she then said. "But under the current security protocol, I need more staff to change that, so we're gonna have to until morning."

Whatever. This was better than nothing.

"So I guess all there is left for both of us is to go back to sleep," she concluded. "Unless you feel like sharing your darkest secrets with me right now or something."

"Aren't you going home?" He asked, somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of her being there the whole night.

"Not as long as your condition isn't stable," she answered. "I have teammate monopoly, remember? And I'm also the only person awake at this hospital right now who is capable of dealing with you when you transform."

"So you're just going to sleep here again," Sasuke surmised. "Don't you at least get your own bed?"

"Afraid not," she chuckled. "This is a special arrangement just until we can be sure you are stable. Which can't be long anymore since we've been able to have this conversation for about half an hour now. So no reason to set up camp yet. Now try to sleep again, I know you want to."

"Hmpfh." He continued to watch her from the corner of his eye as she huddled up his blanket slightly to make a makeshift pillow before setting down her head. He got the weird feeling that she was doing this more for her own peace of mind, rather than due to some hospital regulations. Those sounded widely unprofessional anyways.

Falling asleep was easier said than done when it felt like your body was decomposing on the inside. Not that he usually had an easier time; sleep just rarely was a pleasant experience for him. The pain was not helping. The nagging musings somewhere in his cushioned brain about how the fuck this could happen to him weren't, either. Drugs, of all things, making him this weak. Ridiculous. What had Orochimaru been thinking? Had he even been in on this plan? It somehow seemed more likely that he had not; surely he wouldn't have appreciated his future body being soiled in such a way. Yes, this had probably been Kabuto's work. The two seemed to harmonize well enough most of the time, but Sasuke had never been able to shake off the feeling that Kabuto was secretly plotting against his master somehow.

Not that he ultimately cared about any of that. Or about the long term effects of drugs Sakura had been so upset about. No, the only thing that bothered him was how _weak_ it made him for the moment. And how much time he was going to waste recovering from this, time that could better be spent in training, or the weak substitute these people here were offering him.

Oh well. At least the sparring fights were _entertaining_ in a way. And he did have no alternatives after Konoha had gotten rid of Orochimaru and consorts. That stupid Hokage was right about that. Though Sasuke didn't appreciate that or anything about her at all; she was annoying and exhausting. But at least she kind of seemed to know what she was doing when it came to him.

More than the Third had, for sure. When he had left, Sasuke had just been generally displeased by his lack of actual progress in training. But now, all things considered, it did seem like the Third had been actively discriminating against him for some reason. Had that not been the case, he might not be feeling like his insides were trying to eat themselves up right now. No, he'd actually be soundly asleep and able to train tomorrow. Well, as soundly as he was able to sleep, at least. No matter. Considering all the irregularities that had occurred in relation to his time in Oto, Sasuke was half convinced that without the Third's meddling resulting in his need to train with Orochimaru to begin with, he'd probably be a lot closer to reaching his goal.

The thought filled him with a sudden, irrational burst of hatred for the Third. That was no use. The man was dead. Had been dead for almost two years now. No use being mad at the dead. He needed to focus on what was to become of him now. And if that was to be anything, he needed to rest. And to get some rest, he needed to distract himself from his internal pain and focus on something external.

The first thing he found to focus on was the steady, rhythmic breathing of Sakura's sleeping form. Huh. He needed to amend something; he did in fact appreciate something about the Fifth. It was whatever she had done to Sakura to change her so drastically. Sure, the old Sakura had been easier to handle and annoying in a less troublesome way, but this new Sakura was beneficial to his cause. And his training regimen. All of which was still far from ideal, but it would have to do for the time.

And also, her presence was oddly calming and comforting in a way. And an easy thing to focus on to find some refuge from his current predicament by finally falling asleep again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there we go. Have a late chapter with lots of fan service in it. And Sasuke's POV! 
> 
> Also, before you all get up into arms that there's some inconsistency with his thoughts here and the fact he filed a complaint a few chapters ago, fear not. That is deliberate. 
> 
> This chapter also marks the official end of the content I produced in last year's NaNoWriMo. I have one more chapter ready, and it is rather lengthy, and I will try to keep up the schedule until November. During November there will be a total break due to NaNoWriMo and several video games coming out that will demand my full attention. On the other hand, 50k should provide us with 10 more chapters. Also, I promise this rather dull period of nothing happening will be done after the next chapter. Then there shall be plot. 
> 
> See you!


	10. Ruled By Secrecy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Days trickle by while Sasuke recovers from drug withdrawal and Sakura has been assigned as his personal care-giver. Meanwhile, Kakashi still is missing and things just don't make sense. A lot.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> See? I can totally branch out in music. This chapter title is from a Muse song. Thank my personal adviser on all things English for that.

 

"You have nightmares."

"Don't change the topic!"

Sakura had now spent almost four days at the hospital and at Sasuke's sick bed. He was getting better, but whatever Orochimaru had been giving him was more potent than they'd anticipated and thrown him through more hells than she previously knew existed in drug withdrawal. Cramps of all kinds, seizures, one more cursed seal take-over, fevers coming and going, and the occasional hallucination. Paired with his current inability to keep down anything solid, and his body's newest tendency to get rid of whatever was left of the poisonous substances in it through profuse _sweating_ , and you got a pretty good picture of the misery he was in.

That still didn't keep him from arguing about his treatments when he was briefly capable of doing so.

"So what if I do?" She then humored him in exasperation. "Would that finally make you drink your water?"

"That's not water," he spat at her as viciously as he could in his current position. Which was still lying restrained in a hospital bed and suffering through about every misery the human body could inflict upon itself.

"Yes, it is," she tried reasoning with him. "Well, I suppose it's closer to tea, since it's water steeped with several fruits and vegetables for a few hours and thus rich in detoxicants. Wanna know what those do? Make your metabolism burn through toxic substances faster. In other words, get you out of here faster. Also, you really need to stay hydrated the way you're sweating right now."

"Then what's this for?" He asked disdainfully and nodded at the IV he was attached to. And had to have been reattached to several times, too.

"That's for keeping you from starving," she explained, also not for the first time. "And yes, also to keep you hydrated. But I can't help but think that maybe, actually putting something unaggressive into your digestive system might help to get things on track again. But, you know, don't mind me, I'm just the medic here."

In reply, he rolled his eyes and slumped his head back down onto the pillow.

"Of course, we could also get you some green tea," she mused. "That's not as rich in detoxicants, but boosts your metabolism plenty, so it kind of evens out..."

He made a very audible sound of disgust at that suggestion. Sakura raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, I'm sorry, is common hospital green tea not good enough for you?" She asked pointedly.

"That's not it," he muttered.

"Too bad, because things being the way they are, I'd be totally willing to get a tea set somewhere and have a proper tea ceremony in this very room, if that makes you _fucking_ drink something," she hissed. Sasuke turned his head to look at her skeptically.

"Like you have any idea how that works," he claimed in a tone way too smug for someone in his current predicament. Sakura just sighed and rolled her eyes.

"You seriously need to stop challenging me on stuff like that," she advised him. "Tea ceremonies were on the academy curriculum, you know? Just like ikebana. During those lessons where you boys got extra training session, which is totally unfair, mind you."

"Why would someone like you have nightmares like that?" He returned to the change of topic he'd been aiming for earlier.

"What do you mean 'nightmares like that'?" She asked, frowning. Sure, she'd been sleeping in this room more often than not the last few days, but... Just how much of her newly developed sleeping habits had he witnessed, being handicapped the way he was right now? He was barely conscious most of the time, for heaven’s sake!

In answer, he nodded at the currently sparkling clean emesis basin next to his bed. This was a state that never existed for too long.

"This thing had vomit in it at some point this morning," he then informed her flatly.

"Oh no, when has that ever happened before," she muttered instead of giving him a straight answer just yet.

"It wasn't mine."

"I'm not sure whether it is touching or disturbing that you can tell our vomit apart," Sakura said and almost had to laugh at that.

"It had food in it," Sasuke specified.

"Good point," Sakura admitted.

Sasuke looked at her expectantly, clearly expecting her to elaborate on what had caused her to lose the high quality hospital food she had been eating while sitting at his bedside for almost four days straight. In response, she just stared back for a while, feigning ignorance, until he raised his eyebrows in annoyance.

"Well, have you ever tried the hospital food here?" She then attempted to talk her way out of this. "It's a miracle anyone can keep it down; we should have replaced the cooks years ago..."

"From what I can tell, that’s exactly what the Fifth did in the past year," Sasuke rebutted without hesitation. “I know for a fact the food quality here is now way better than it has any right to be.”

"Well, yeah, but someone screwed it up yesterday and now we're battling food poisoning all around, which I happen to have contracted," she quickly readjusted her lie.

"In that case you wouldn't have stopped hurling ever since," Sasuke pointed out to her. "Which I would have noticed."

"Well, maybe it's not exactly food poisoning, but I may have contracted a stomach bug of sorts." She was a medic, dammit; she knew way more reasons to be throwing up than he knew how to rebuff.

"Then you'd also have hurled a lot more," he said, his tone growing more annoyed by the second. "And they'd have taken you off the job, even the job of babysitting me, since catching whatever you have would keep me from recovering. Try something better."

...And as a medic, she knew he had one hell of a point there. Dammit. She squirmed in her seat uncomfortably.

"Well, uh..." If she sounded reluctant enough about this, he might just buy this next one. "Well, uhm, I don't know if you noticed, but... uh..." She avoided his gaze for maximum effect. "You... Well, you... Kinda... Smell? You know? And when I woke up, it was kind of overwhelming, and, uh..."

That shut him up for a moment, before he sighed in annoyance and rolled his eyes.

"You have been sleeping in this room," he then reminded her, his voice making it clear that he was forcing himself not to start yelling at her in anger. "You would have been used to the smell so it couldn't overwhelm you. Also, you're a fucking medic and deal with this shit all the time. They wouldn't have you on the job if you were too _delicate_ to handle the smell."

"Ugh..." He had her there. Again. Why was his brain working so well right now? Was he finally getting some kind of better? If so, bad, bad timing there. "So the next item on my list for causes that wouldn't get me taken off the job just yet would be pregnancy. But... Yeah, let's not go there," she sighed, admitting defeat and started massaging her temples. This conversation was too much of a headache already.

"So?"

From the sound of his voice, she mused that if she agitated him any further, Sasuke might just activate his juin voluntarily and then actually try to harm her. Something he hadn't done on the instances the seal broke loose. Yes.

"I'll trade you," Sakura then offered, taking the jug containing the detoxicating water from his nightstand and wiggling it in front of him slightly. "You drink a cup of this and I'll tell you all about my nightmares. But only if you keep it down."

"I have no control over that," Sasuke informed her grimly.

"When it comes to taste, not throwing up is actually a matter of willpower," Sakura replied, pouring some of the water into a cup and holding it to his face. Glaring at her with several degrees of contempt, which some time ago would have sent her running away crying and screaming, Sasuke opened his mouth. They'd had attempted this a few times before, and each and every time Sasuke had insisted on getting at least one hand tied loose to keep at least some of his dignity intact and taking the cup himself, but Sakura would take no risks. And also, she mused, after all they'd been through these past four days, he kind of had no dignity left to lose when it came to her.

And if this kept going the way it was headed, at the end of it all, the lack of dignity would be mutual.

Sasuke gulped down his water slowly and deliberately, never taking his eyes off her just to make the extent of his rage known. This also didn't bother her anymore. Because on one hand, she was his goddamn medic and it was her job to do what was best for him no matter what he thought of her methods. And on the other hand, this was one hell of a humbling experience for him, especially when it came to her, and would maybe make him think twice before filing official complaints about her again.

She put down the cup when he had emptied it about half-way, nodding approvingly when he didn't spit it out immediately.

"See?" She smiled that smile she usually reserved for slowly recovering patients who probably didn't possess two brain cells to rub together anymore. Some ninja's indulgences could lead to that. "You _can_ keep this stuff down if you just put your mind to it!"

"Your turn," he hissed, apparently struggling quite a bit with both his urge to spit out the admittedly less than pleasantly flavored liquid, and the urge to punch something in irritation. Preferably her.

Well, annoying him always had been her specialty.

"Why do you even care?" She tried to evade the topic once more. "So I have nightmares that make me throw up. Big deal. Half of the shinobi we employ do, actually. Comes with the territory."

"Just making sure you're not emotionally unstable," he grunted, unimpressed by her baiting and evading tactics.

She drew in a hissing breath.

"If I didn't know any better," she then said, forcing her voice to remain calm and steady and not to punch him in return. "I'd say you're hell-bent on getting rid of me, aren't you? First I'm supposed to me emotionally compromised, and now this? Wow. Really, wow, Sasuke, I'm impressed."

"What the hell?" Sasuke seemed genuinely confused, before glaring at her with disdain again.

"But you know what?" She continued unfazed. "The emotionally compromised complaint? That might even have worked initially, since, yeah, okay, we have history, and that history really doesn't play out in my favor, does it? And while it was a low blow to even insinuate that that history could, even for a second, compromise my professionalism, well, at least your concerns weren't completely unfounded. But claiming that between your issues and Naruto's situation _I'm_ the unstable one on this team? You are _not_ going to get through with that."

Sasuke had watched her rant with mild interest, but seemed to grow more and more pissed with each word.

"Between my _issues_ and Naruto's situation, you are the one throwing up from nightmares," he then hissed after she had finished and calmed down enough to listen again.

She froze for a second, the slumped down in her chair, all the anger and energy leaving her at once.

"Fine. Good point. I'm sorry," she murmured. "Ugh... It's just... Nothing for you to worry about, okay? I'm not unstable, or anything. And you're not getting me off the team, no matter what you try."

"You keep going on about that," he grunted. "What the hell am I supposed to have done?"

"Filed an official complaint about me, how I'm emotionally compromised and not fit to be on a team with you," Sakura explained, but it slowly dawned on her that something about that was off. "You… didn't do that, did you?"

"Why would I?" He snarled back. "It's not like the alternatives are any better."

"That bitch," Sakura moaned and buried her head in her face, laughing. "Oh god, I'm so sorry, I should have seen right through this..."

"That explains why you were so pissed off all the time," he noted, then flinched in disgust. "Please don't tell me that's what you dreamed about. Because if that’s it, I might file an actual complaint about you."

She laughed even louder at how ridiculous this situation had gotten. Seriously, how could she have ever believed Tsunade that Sasuke would even concern himself with such trifling matters in the first place? And if he wasn't beyond filing complaints, why would he do so now, when she was actually showing her work, instead of back when she hadn't?

"No, no, don't worry, that's not it," she giggled, wiping the tears off her eyes. God, laughing felt good after being holed in here for so long. "It, ah... It has nothing to do with you, in any case," she then admitted. "Not directly, at least."

"Just _fucking_ tell me already," Sasuke growled, fed up with all of her evasive tactics.

"You do realize that you're chained to a bed and actually don't have any leverage to make demands, don't you?" She was still laughing a little just at how ridiculous this had become.

"I can make your job harder for you," Sasuke argued. "Make us stuck in here for another week or so. _And_ I already did my part. You better deliver if _you_ want to keep any kind of leverage."

"Fine, fine, whatever." She waved dismissively before straightening up in her chair again. What was she actually afraid of here? It's not like she didn't know what his nightmares were about... Then again, so did the rest of the world since it wasn't really any kind of secret what had happened to his family. Well, the exact circumstances kind of were, but nobody could argue with the results. And nobody thought any less of him for it... Then again, it's not like she had any kind of trauma to keep up here. Ugh.

"Remember the guys you were with when Naruto and I found you?" She then finally caved in. Pun not even intended. "Before Naruto chased you down?"

Sasuke frowned.

"What of them?" He asked sternly. "None of them were anything special. Nothing to give anyone nightmares."

"One of them transformed his arm into a spiky whip and they all grew extra body parts," Sakura responded. "That's pretty nightmare-ish on its own, don't you think?"

"You sound like the Inuzuka," he pointed out flatly. Sakura blinked.

"Oh god, I do," she realized. "I'm sorry. I won't make a habit of mentioning the whip guy. Oh god, that sounds like some weird fetish. _Oh god_. I think this is traumatizing me even more..."

"This is not what makes you throw up," Sasuke cut through her ramblings. "Get to the point."

"Well, I was kind of overwhelmed by these guys," she continued her tale. "I mean, there were... I don't even remember, a dozen or so of them, all of them had a seal like yours, and they all transformed and ganged up on me, so... I had to find a way to get out of there alive, and... Well..." She brushed her hair back nervously, vehemently avoiding his gaze. "I brought the hall down on them."

When he didn't say anything in response to that, she glanced at him quickly. He seemed moderately impressed, whether by her skill or quick thinking was impossible to say and didn't really matter to her all things considered, but still didn't seem to get it. Okay. So nobody in this hospital had informed him what had happened to a majority of the patients they still had around.

"And while that seemed like a good idea at the time, bringing down the hall caused... Problems on the surface," she continued hesitantly. "Namely, a... landslide that did in most of our opposition at the time... But also a sizeable amount of... Our people..." Her hands were shaking, as she vigorously tried to suppress the images of the carnage that came to her mind due to this memory. The images themselves didn't exactly make her throw up, but the dreams always included a more... Real image altogether, including the smell of the clearing where she had saved Tenten, and the sounds she imagined had been there when the ground gave in. All of that was enough to trigger her actually quite sensitive stomach; it just wasn't sensitive to anything related to her medical profession.

"So what?" Sasuke asked, still not getting it.

"So I killed a whole lot of our own people!" She explained defensively. "And... Well, Neji took me to the place after, because Tenten was still alive but hadn't been taken by the medical squad at the time, since they were busy... And... I saw... And..."

"But that was on accident," Sasuke pointed out. "You did it to save yourself."

"Because my life is worth so much more than the many people I killed, and the many more people I injured, right," she deflected bitterly, fighting back tears.

"How did you affect the combat situation at large?" Sasuke now wanted to know. Weird how chatty he was being.

"Well..." She swallowed down the tears. "As far as I know, it wasn't looking too good... We weren't losing per se, but getting swarmed by enemy ninjas from all sides, until... Well... I killed them all... Indiscriminately. Which turned the battle around, or something."

"So you won the battle," Sasuke pointed out.

"Nonsense," she waved this off. "I made it more difficult. I killed people! People on our side!"

"Collateral damage," he claimed. Sakura jumped to her feet.

"How can you just say things like that?!" She asked outraged. "Those were comrades I killed! And I saw the kind of injuries caused by this, and they were not pretty, so most of them died of being crushed to death, which is one of the most horrible ways to go, and..."

"This was war," he interrupted her. "They knew they were likely to die in horrible ways from the start."

"But I caused this!" She insisted.

"And won the battle," he brought up again. "It's not the first time methods like this were used to win a battle in a war zone, you know that. And if I recall correctly, winning a military encounter outweighs a few lives lost. Or a lot."

She had to concede to that point; that's what they had been taught in the academy quite a few times, just to get the point across. All in all, there had been even more despicable acts that were celebrated as heroic deeds in their village; a very popular strategy to winning wars had been the tearing down of bridges, just in case the enemy couldn't walk on water or build new ones on the fly. These measures were known to have caused the collapse of several civilian economies at the time. But still...

"And what about that thing Kakashi taught us?" She asked bitterly. "How your comrades are more important than the mission?"

"Kakashi is full of shit and a horrible teacher," Sasuke said. "Why listen to him of all people?"

She tried to come up with a counter argument to this but... Failed. And yet, in some odd way, this conversation, as despicable as Sasuke's arguments were, did cheer her up somewhat.

"But that still doesn't change the fact..." She started again, but Sasuke just groaned.

"Yes, you caused the death of all these people. And you can wallow in guilt or self-pity about that as much as you want, that fact isn't going away. So what. Look at it mathematically."

"Mathematically I still accidentally killed a lot of people!" She argued.

"What, was that the first time you killed?" Sasuke asked incredulously.

"Not... Really..." She tried to think back. All the killing she'd done during the war had kind of muddled up her memory a little when it came to that. "Just... Never on such a grand scale... And..." She brushed through her hair again. "It's like... During all my training, a key point has always been that I learn to fix the damage I cause alongside with causing it, you know? When I punch someone and break their bones or damage their organs, I can fix that. If I punch a hole in the ground, I dig it back up. If I punch down a wall, I help rebuild it, but this..." Sakura stared at her shaking hands, fighting tears again. "I can't fix this! Any of it! And I've treated patients who have been in the landslide, but... Most of them lost some sort of body part that was crushed so badly it can't be restored and... It's all my fault!"

"So pay better attention to your surroundings next time," Sasuke commented on her monologue. "I still see no alternative, and to keep going on about this is pointless." He shrugged best as he could with the restraints in place. "Also, this just shows you're a better fighter than healer. Isn't that something you've wanted?"

She looked up at him in confusion. True enough, she was a little more proud of her fighting skills than she was of her healing skills. Healing had come to her a lot easier, for various reasons. Still, she was aware that her fighting skills were nothing much out of the ordinary, and mostly just basically what was necessary to have a future in the business, and to say she was a better fighter than healer was preposterous, but... Hearing it from Sasuke kind of made her proud all over again, and calmed her down significantly.

"Your line of argument is despicable and you're kind of being an ass about it," she said, suppressing a smile, and taking his hand closest to her in both of her hands. "But somehow, you have managed to make me feel better, so... Thank you? I guess?" She smiled at him.

Sasuke stared back, first in confusion, then he rolled his eyes in annoyance and avoided her gaze.

"Don't blow this out of proportion," he demanded while trying to wrestle his hand out of her grip. "I just made sure you're not going crazy or something like that. That would be bad for me, considering we're stuck here together."

"Well, if you're strong enough to hold a conversation like this, probably not for much longer," she noted, and then took the glass he had emptied half-way earlier and held it in his direction. "Drink up."

 

* * *

 

Sasuke was released from the hospital soon after, spending about a week and a half there. Sakura felt like she was being released with him – the hours she had spent not at his bedside could be counted on one hand, and her mother had made some pointed remarks about hardly even recognizing her anymore. Well, she got what she wanted; Sakura was off-training for four days to recover from the strain the constant vigil had put on her, giving her mother time to take care of her for a change. Still, there were only so many elaborate dinners and bubble baths Sakura could endure before growing restless once more; her boys were still receiving special training, after all, while she was sitting around being idle. Hell, Naruto had a whole week more training than them, since there had been nothing else for him to do while Sasuke was hospitalized. He tried visiting a few times, but was followed around by a few... Not so nice girls who were trying to find out where Sasuke's room was, so Sakura pretty much told him to stay away but kept him updated frequently. In the rare hours she was not in the hospital, giving her mom more cause to be upset... She just couldn't win, could she?

Nevertheless, after just a few days, Naruto dropped by her window in the evening and informed her they had a team training session the next morning, at the usual place.

"About time!" Naruto remarked. "I can don't even know your faces anymore!"

"You sound like my mom," Sakura said darkly.

"I've never met your mom, have I?" Naruto then wondered and tried peeking past her into the house. "Maybe I should go and introduce myself, what do you think?"

"I think she might try beating you with a broomstick for breaking and entering," Sakura answered and chuckled. "And also for loitering in front of her daughter's bedroom window, which for civilians is something only creeps do. But go right ahead."

"...Nah, I think I'm good," he gulped, looking a little paler. The thought that a small, petite woman with a broomstick could scare him so much made Sakura laugh. "See you tomorrow!"

"Yeah, see you!" She waved as Naruto left her window by climbing onto the roof, now apparently extra careful not to be spotted by her terrifying mother.

***

"Where's Kakashi?" Were Sasuke's words of greeting the next morning when he turned up last. True, that had usually been reserved to Kakashi, but ever since Jiraiya was his co-sensei, he had been on his best behavior and only been fifteen minutes late, tops. Today Sasuke was fifteen minutes late and had already missed a little, non-serious sparring session Sakura and Naruto had been having, under only Jiraiya's supervision.

"Out on a job," their remaining sensei told him. "Nothing to concern yourself with."

"He’s been gone for two weeks," Sasuke reminded the older man, who just rolled his eyes.

"And you got your special training so far, didn't you?" He pointed out. "Well, granted, being out of commission most of the time helped. Don’t worry, if he's not back before your next scheduled session, I'll have some other special stuff ready for you."

Sasuke didn't seem okay with not worrying here, but let it go for the time being. Jiraiya nodded in satisfaction, clapped his hands and looked around gingerly.

"Well, if you're so concerned about not getting enough training, why don't you and Sakura have the first fight today?"

"Uhm..." Sakura started to protest. "I, uh, don't think that's a good idea... I mean, a full out fight isn't..."

"I was cleared for training," Sasuke reminded her. " _You_ cleared me for training _personally_."

"Yes, but not for all-out fighting," Sakura explained. "I mean, not to the extent we usually do... And you did suffer significant regression of muscle mass and physical capability, so it would probably be best to try and regain that before trying something like this..."

"You weren't exactly exercising on a daily basis yourself," Sasuke pointed out, glaring at her. "And I can definitely still take you on."

Sakura rolled her eyes in annoyance. Since when was he so competitive when it came to her? It's not like she didn't remember their current track record, and while she could have beaten him before his drug withdrawal if she took him by surprise, he was still in the lead on victories scored. She was doing this out of concern for his health, for heaven's sake, and not to spare her own skin! Or his. Well, kinda. Whatever.

"Well, don't think I'll hold back now," she then cautioned him while moving into the center of the designated sparring area. "Remember what I told you about challenging me on things?"

"Stop talking and fight already," Jiraiya yelled at them from the sidelines, with Naruto sitting by and grinning at them.

So fight they did. And while Sasuke was by no means bad, he was far, far from his usual superiority, so Sakura couldn't help but hold back a little herself. She didn't want to unnecessarily injure him, or wound his pride. Much.

She was just about to actually land a pretty nice blow to his face, briefly wondering how she’d manage to catch him off guard enough to get such a good shot, even considering his recent decline in ability, when suddenly, the world started spinning.

Well, not the world, actually. Just some… Nice little black thingies… With a red backdrop…

…Mmh, she liked those colors. Pretty colors. And they made such a pretty pattern, too! Pretty spinning pattern… Hmm… For some reason, she just felt like… Putting down her fists, and maybe… Maybe lying down for a nap… Yes… Yes, a nap would be nice. Naps are awesome.

…Wait a minute. Wasn’t she supposed to be doing something else? Like not staring at the nice spinning red and black circles? Yes, maybe, but… That nap… And didn’t the floor look inviting?

It didn’t, actually, she realized, because it wasn’t there anymore. Only some sort of black void she for some reason wasn’t falling into. Weird. And definitely not something to lie down on. So much for the nap, then.

She looked back at the spinning spheres. Huh. She’d seen them somewhere before. Definitely. That was odd. They didn’t seem dangerous, though, not like something that would hurt her…

…And yet they made her feel dizzy. She didn’t like feeling dizzy. And she started to seriously dislike this weird black void she was apparently in.

 _It’s okay, just lie down and sleep… You are tired, aren’t you? Yes, all that training must be exhausting…_ A very, very appealing and sort of familiar voice started whispering into her… Head.

Oh, right. Training. Right. Whatever happened to… Oh.

So that’s what had happened. He'd pulled the same stunt on Naruto recently, hadn't he?

Considering how she was apparently trapped in some sort of Genjutsu induced by his eyes, Sakura did the sensible thing; she tried to dispel it. It didn’t work.

That was odd; usually, her performance of the standard dispelling move was enough to break through any kind of genjutsu that had been thrown at her. From weak academy training sessions to Kabuto taking out the entire village by putting everyone to sleep, much like this thing was trying to do now.

Hm. Unless… This was no usual genjutsu. It was definitely Sharingan based, she could tell that much due to the swirling around her. Unfortunately, how to fight that hadn’t exactly been on the curriculum… Wait, wait, yes it had been. She remembered pictures of the Sharingan in some textbook, with a brief summation of the Uchiha family history, which she didn’t care about back then since that had been before Sasuke became a popular choice of guy to have a crush on among academy girls.

Which had been before his family was killed.

And now that she thought of it, they had received updated textbooks very shortly after the fact, and when she had looked in there for the Uchiha information again, you know, to know more about the boy everyone had a crush on, her included, it was gone. There was a quick note on how there had been an Uchiha clan once and they’d been involved in founding the village, just like that red haired woman whose last name was blackened out of older copies and not present in newer ones, and any other information had been taken out.

Ugh, so much thinking, so much remembering… It made her eyelids grow heavy. So what if there was no actual ground under her, a nap would be _so_ nice right about now… No. No, no, no, _focus_.

Okay. Sharingan. Not a genjutsu. Sharingan swirling in front of her. Oh, what the hell. It’s not like she had any better options, so she did the only remaining, sort of sensible thing; she poked the swirling thing in front of her.

To the resonating sound of a sharp cry of pain, the black world around her shattered, and she was on the training grounds again, still feeling a little dizzy, but at least reality was back in place.

To her feet lay Sasuke, clutching his eyes and growling in pain. She kicked him for good measure.

“Why would you do that?” He asked, sounding enraged.

“You tried to hypnotize me!” She answered, equally enraged. “With your date rape eyes! That is so not okay!”

“Date rape eyes?” Naruto snorted. “Nice one.”

“Thanks for helping out there, by the way!” Sakura spat at him. "And you, too!" She addressed Jiraiya, who did nothing to hide his amusement.

“Hey, this took, like, five seconds!” Naruto defended himself while Sasuke was still on the ground, covering his eyes. “And it’s not like you helped me when he did it to me!”

“No, his was different,” Jiraiya said, a frown on his face. “Something stronger and a lot nastier.”

“This wasn’t even against the rules!” Sasuke said, his voice still sounding strained from the pain. “The only thing not allowed was the Chidori!”

"And all other techniques you built upon it," Jiraiya added. "A rule you are neglecting close to every time. Oh, and also, your cursed seal."

"Which is way easier to handle than the eyes," Sakura muttered, choosing to ignore the fact that every time she had dealt with Sasuke's cursed seal, it had been under exceptional circumstances and he had not been at full power. Or any other experience she had ever made with the cursed seal in general.

"Well, why are you complaining?" Jiraiya then asked _her_ for some reason. "It's not like he bested you or anything, quite the opposite.”

“Yes, but this was not a genjutsu, or anything else I could defend myself against,” Sakura argued back. “I have no idea what it was, but… Ugh, it was creepy.”

"So is that what Kakashi has taught you in your special training sessions?" Naruto asked, understanding dawning on his face. Sakura bit back that she could completely understand why the Third hadn't been comfortable with having a little boy learn this technique. Being completely at the mercy of some swirling black-on-red spheres was... Creepy. Among the creepiest things she'd ever experienced, even more creepy than having Ino invade her mind or shove out her consciousness... Though the sensation was somewhat similar, all things considered.

"Yes, among other things, I would hope," Jiraiya answered when Sasuke just rolled his eyes. "And girly, really, you defended yourself just fine. I’d have interfered if he made you do truly fucked up things. However, don't use this on Naruto," he then addressed Sasuke directly.

"Huh?" Naruto looked offended. "But he already did! And trying to put Sakura to sleep is okay and me not anymore?"

"This was something else," Jiraiya repeated. "Something nastier than just putting you to sleep like last time. Something Sakura can resist, as she just demonstrated," Jiraiya pointed out. "Main reason I didn't interfere. You on the other hand? Nah, not this thing. We're still working on that."

Sakura had meanwhile gone over to where Sasuke was by now sitting up but still clutching his eyes. She pried his hands away from his face and quickly checked whether she had caused any actual damage.

"Your eyes are fine," she told him, applying a little chakra to them nevertheless to soothe the pain somewhat. "Are you hurt anywhere else?"

"No," he answered and stood up, refusing her help, "So what now?"

"Now you fight Naruto," Jiraiya instructed. "And do not try that on him if you want to get any training done today, got it?"

"But we did that creepy genjutsu resist training!" Naruto protested. "I can totally take him on!"

“It’s not –,“ Sakura started, but Jiraiya was faster.

"Because that totally worked last time," he scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Also, this is not a genjutsu. Well, not exactly, it's more like invading your subconscious and telling you what to do. And we do not want him in your subconscious, understood?"

Sakura bit back that this was probably just edging Sasuke on and also kind of the definition of a genjutsu, but on the other hand, Sasuke had seemed more exhausted by whatever he had used on her than she had been by breaking it, and a lot more exhausted than he had been after putting Naruto to sleep some time ago. She was about to point out that it might be smarter to just let her get beaten up by Naruto for the time being than to send Sasuke in again, but Jiraiya had apparently noticed this as well and amended his instructions.

"Also, only taijutsu now. That means just your fists and weapons, no Sharingan, no Bunshin, and of course nothing shiny and sparkling. Get down to it."

* * *

"Shouldn't you be supervising instead of... Uh... Doing your... Side job?" Sakura asked when Jiraiya took out a notebook with a quite telling title carved into the cover and started scribbling in it.

"This is actually my main source of income," he corrected her, smirking a little. "And Naruto won't harm him. Much."

"That's... Not exactly what I was worried about," Sakura admitted, biting her lips and choosing not to ponder on the village's apparent preference in literature. Jiraiya just chuckled.

"The Uchiha won't hurt him, either," he assured her. "He can't, anyway. That little mind trick he pulled on you drained him too much."

"He might still try," she reminded him darkly. "Especially after you tempted him. What is it with Naruto's subconscious you don't want him to see?"

"Not my story to tell," her new sensei shot her down immediately. "And also, that little mind trick was what drained him in the first place. Plus, he only did that to show you who’s the boss."

"You are,” Sakura pointed out. “And I’m just saying that he does have a tendency to break rules, especially after having them spelled out to him. Remember how he electrocuted Naruto in the very first fight after you had just told him not to?”

"Yes, he did that to set the record straight about who's the stronger guy around," Jiraiya explained mockingly. "Fat lot of good it did him, Naruto's still in the lead when it comes to their normal sparring."

"You're actually keeping track?" She hadn't expected that. Whenever she was in shape enough to actually pay attention to what her senseis were doing while her boys were sparring, they mostly talked about their shared taste in literature. Which was precisely the reason Sakura didn't pay too much attention to them.

"Aren't you?" Jiraiya shot back at her.

"Well, only about the fights that involve me," she conceded. So far, she had beaten Sasuke exactly twice, but had lost more often than not, and she'd never been able to win against Naruto. Not the most motivational statistic, that.

"Fair enough," Jiraiya said. "Well, for your information, Naruto's in the lead for now, and I don't expect that to change for a while, not with the Uchiha being out of shape as he is now. And, well, your abilities are just... Uh..."

"Yes, he's totally out of my league," Sakura finished, rolling her eyes. "I got that message, loud and clear."

"Not even," Jiraiya said, rolling his eyes in turn. "In all-around examinations, you'd rank about the same, you'd probably be in the lead because of your theoretical knowledge even. No, the thing is just that your fighting styles are incompatible; you'll never beat him with taijutsu, and for now, that's all you can do. To great effect, don't get me wrong, but... Nah." He laughed again. "You ever heard of Mushi-Ken?"

"Uh..." Sakura had heard that term somewhere before and started rummaging through her brain for it. "Isn't that... An old word for rock-paper-scissors?"

"Sort of," Jiraiya confirmed. "Just that it was played with animals instead. Makes more sense for them to be fighting each other, anyway. Well, more than for inanimate objects, at least."

"Is there a point to this?" Sakura wanted to know while trying her best not to sound rude.

"Yes," Jiraiya assured her. "And it's funny and ironic and kinda depressing too, all things considered. Can you guess the animals?"

"Hm... Zodiac signs, maybe?" Sakura tried. "Like with the hand seals..." She hesitated for a moment as an old memory resurfaced. "Now that you mention it, I think they taught us the hand seals in kindergarten with some version of rock-paper-scissors between them, I think..."

"Yeah, some freaks still play that." Jiraiya shuddered, sounding mildly scared. "Total nutjobs, who can ever remember the correlation between all twelve of them..."

Sakura did a quick run-down in her mind as to how many of the correlations she remembered, and while she didn't get up to all 66 there were, she came... Until somewhere around forty-five or fifty at least. She remembered dragon being unfairly over-powered in comparison to everything else, too. Which helped her a great deal to win the little competitions they'd had in kindergarten. It had also been one of the least popular signs, as it was one of the most complicated looking out of all of them. The least popular in total had been the boar, which placed your hands at awkward angles, and had been Ino's go-to sign for... Reasons. Well. Dragons were fond of roasted pork, so that hadn't helped her.

"Well, the point is, they weren't zodiac signs," Jiraiya then brought her thoughts back on track. "Actually, that's not my point at all. Dammit."

"You seem a little scatter-brained, for a writer," Sakura pointed out. That made him laugh again.

"If I weren't, I could never be a writer," he corrected her. "Anyways. Try and look up the Mushi-Ken and then feel devastated for the rest of your life, or something. Well, and also to figure out that you totally do have a place in this team, even if you’re winning the least battles out of you three. Give it time, blah.”

“…Did Tsunade put you up to giving me a pep talk?” Sakura asked suspiciously. “If so, thanks, but no thanks, I don’t think I need one anymore.”

"Nah, I just feel like talking to you,” her sensei said, shrugging. “Beats counting the form breaks in their performances, in any case.” He suddenly grinned. “Yes, that’s an excellent point; both of them lack the personal and formal skills to ever be an efficient team on missions on their own. Just imagine them trying to go on a mission together without you; they'd never get anything done in time."

"With Naruto's super-luck, they'd get everything done in time due to some insane coincidences after they kept screwing up all the way until the showdown," Sakura argued.

"Probably," Jiraiya admitted. "But with you to keep them from squabbling, they'd do it in half the time."

"So I get to be an over-glamourized calming agent," Sakura concluded. "Yay. Your pep-talk sucks."

“Eh, to be an effective calming agent, he Uchiha still has to come around enough to let himself be calmed,” Jiraiya pointed out. “So far, you usually just egg him on more.”

“Not on purpose,” Sakura assured him darkly. “And I am so sorry for failing in my primary function. So far I thought that would be healing, but things being the way they are, I guess I better adjust my behavior.”

"Nah, don't be that way," Jiraiya said, sounding a little exasperated. "He's just pissed because he's gotta get used to you not being... Uh..."

"Oh my god," Sakura groaned and buried her head on her knees. "What exactly do you know?"

"Girly, come on, give me some credit," her new sensei demanded. "Little girls were in love with pretty boys on their team way before my time even. It's a time honored tradition. One we quite frankly set you up for with the team constellation, if you ask me." He scoffed. "Which nobody does, but hey, I wasn't around when this wreak of a team was conceived, so what do I know."

"Hm," Sakura murmured, trying to fight down her blush at the reminder of days past. "Well, you're right, looking at, uh, personal attachment, our team set-up was something of a worst case scenario."

"You don't say." Now he sounded quite pleased with himself and her. "Out of curiosity, what would you have done?"

"Hm..." Sakura started thinking about this. "Uhm, given the... Crush I had on Sasuke-kun, and the crush Naruto had on me..."

Jiraiya snorted.                     

"Your use of the past tense amuses me," he informed her.

"...In what way?" She asked him, trying not to sound as concerned as she actually was. If he was referring to her own feelings for Sasuke then, uh, good, because she had no idea what those were at this time herself. Whatever she felt for him was _strong_ , sure, but... Different. Different from what it had been before, and definitely different from what she felt for Naruto, which was also strong, but... If Jiraiya was referring to Naruto, then that was just... Bad...

"Eh, don't worry your pretty little head about it," he tried to calm her. "It'll pass. Whatever you're worried about in this. Yes. Now please continue."

"Okay... Uh..." She tried to refocus her thoughts. This was a teacher giving her an assignment, nothing more. "I mean, I do think the other two teams are set up really well. Their abilities harmonize and their interpersonal relationships are stable. And while assigning a genjutsu specialist to a team of trackers seems questionable, well, they do make it work, so it would seem like a waste to break them up."

"I see your point," Jiraiya admitted, sounding annoyed again. "But just humor me for a minute, okay?"

"Okay, so based on how things were when we graduated the academy and ignoring the fact that there is no way Ino, Shikamaru and Chouji wouldn't have ended up in the same team..." She paused briefly. "Well, Ino and Naruto would have to be in a team to avoid emotional compromise, if we stick to the two boys, one girl rule. Hm. Third person would be hard, though. They'd really need a calming agent, but... I don't know, I'd be tempted to put Kiba with them, which would probably be a disaster at first, but once they get their act together, they'd be really efficient, and have strength in numbers, which makes Ino's ability less hazardous. Also she has the tendency to be very, very bossy and Shikamaru and Chouji give in rather than endure that nine times out of ten, so less compliant people would provide a lot of growth for... Well, everyone involved."

"Interesting," Jiraiya commented her thoughts. "But why Ino and not the Hyuuga girl?"

Sakura looked at him incredulously. Apparently, her sensei wasn't quite as well informed has he had her believe.

"Well, the least intrusive change would be to simply make Hinata and me switch places," she admitted. "But I thought you wanted a complete reboot."

"True," Jiraiya admitted. "So, what else?"

"Well, Sasuke-kun would have to team up with Hinata, and Chouji I'd say. They'd make a well-balanced combat unit as well, and also Hinata and Chouji are both so sweet, they'd probably solve his attitude problem in no time at all," she mused. That one sounded way better than Naruto's re-imagined team, and Sasuke having to deal with people who were sweet but not affected by his antics at all was an amusing thought. Hinata had always been completely resistant to everything related to him, probably because she was used to, well, his type. Silent, mysterious and super-talented people weren't all that hard to find in her family, and had never been all that nice to her. No wonder her type was the complete opposite, really.

"Ah, I can see where you're going with this," Jiraiya chuckled. "Good thinking. So that leaves you, the Nara and the Aburame?"

"Yes," Sakura confirmed. "Well, we'd not be much of a combat unit, but strategists and very efficient in more subtle missions and things like that. Not so much for flashy fighting, but highly specialized and well, uh, being surrounded by people who were born with subdued, professional attitudes and little emotional involvement would probably have done me a lot of good. I'd also assign Kurenai as a sensei there, since I get the feeling Shikamaru also has some aptitude for genjutsu. Kakashi-sensei would need to stay with Sasuke for Sharingan training, and Asuma would do best with a loud and boisterous wrecking unit."

"You raise a lot of good points," Jiraiya praised her. "I have come to the same conclusion, if whoever assigned your teams had been thinking... Practically, it should have turned out that way. That way you'd have had three solid teams, instead of two good ones and a wild card." He paused, considering something. "Also, except for the other two girls, you assigned people by their final academy grades, didn't you? Placing the top scorers with the other top scorers and the like."

"Uh, sort of?" Sakura admitted. "I mean, sure, I never was a fan of the top scorers dragging the people along who had bad grades, but it also just... Kind of works out, hypothetically, you know? And also, I'm convinced Hinata could have scored higher than Ino if she hadn't had... Uh, reasons. And if she had been better at giving presentations and stuff like that."

"Yeah, I've been wondering why they'd score a Hyuuga so low," Jiraiya muttered. "I mean, it's been known to happen the shoehorn in low grades for members of their side branch to force them into the system, but..." He shook his head. "Well, thanks for showing me that even a thirteen year old could come up with a better team arrangement than Hiruzen did."

"...You're welcome," Sakura said a little confused. "So... Was there a point to this?"

"Huh?" Jiraiya had been looking at his notebook again. "Oh, well, uh. Just be aware that the Uchiha is pissed you're no longer his doormat and can hit him now. Keep up the good work, or something."

"Right." She glared back at her knees. "But... You're not going to assign different teams, are you? For efficiency?"

Jiraiya laughed.

"Now that we have you all trained up?" He asked. "Naah. There's a damn good reason we're putting so much effort into the three of you. Or did you think Tsunade-hime kept you around out of pity?"

"...Occasionally," Sakura admitted. "It's why she took me as a student in the beginning, at least. That and maybe nostalgia."

“You call it nostalgia, I call it whatever works, works,” Jiraiya said. “And you guys? You are so totally going to work. With a little more fine-tuning, mind you, but damn, are we going to make you work.”

That sounded a little too ominous, and quite plainly, creepy for Sakura’s liking, but hey. At least he and Tsunade seemed to have some sort of plan, and when in doubt, she’d at least always trust Tsunade.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, that's it. That's all I had done last November, minus a scene I cut from this because a) that would have made this chapter extremely long and b) it fits in better next time for tonal reasons. The main theme of this chapter was conspiracy theories, if you couldn't tell. Try counting how many things mentioned in this are mysteries for the characters for now. 
> 
> And while we're at it, action and plot will return in the chapter after the next. There will be fighting. And mystery solving. I promise. After one more chapter of character development stuff. 
> 
> Also, if you feel like stalking me and always being up to date on Threats, consider following me on tumblr at http://vohalika.tumblr.com/ . If you hover over the Sakura picture on the right, you'll see that Threats has its very own tag and page! And I recently published a playlist with all the chapter titles in it there, with a rant about music and this fanfiction in particular. Feel free to check it out, and all that.


	11. Glad You Came

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura's mom gets a little... weird, people become strangely decent and Sakura and Sasuke receive some special training. Somewhere in the distance, the plot waves meekly but is in no hurry to come along.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is where you start to see that this is really an ensemble fic. Seriously. There are PEOPLE in this. All of them. Also, sorry for the delay, I had some time problems and had to write this all on the fly. I can't promise regular updates from now on, but I'll try to keep something coming until November when I will be in solitary confinement/NaNoWriMo to keep this going. Also yes the plot starts next chapter I promise. You can already see it in the distance, too! Also, it's a long one, a REALLY long one, scratching on 12k before being edited down, to make up for the 24 hour wait.

"Morning, mom," Sakura said while hurrying down the stairs. It was 6.30 AM and her hospital shift/special individual training started at 7. Her mother, who always got up somewhere around 5 for all she knew, was in the dining room and arranging a new bouquet of flowers. "Sorry, no time to chat, gotta hurry."

"About that," her mother said, looking up from her handiwork with a slightly concerned frown on her face. "I received a message this morning; Tsunade is sending you to some kind of training grounds instead."

"Is she, now," Sakura muttered in annoyance as she walked over to her mom to give her a quick hug. "And she couldn't have had that message delivered last night, you know, before I got up at 6?"

"Now, now, don't complain, 6 is a perfectly reasonable hour for a young lady," her mother scolded her playfully as she handed her the note. Not even in Tsunade's handwriting, she'd let Shizune do the dirty work. Again. Though Sakura would have been seriously surprised if the Hokage had been in her office before sunrise, anyways. Well, awake in her office before sunrise, she should amend. Whatever.

"We've been over the young lady bit," Sakura muttered, rolling her eyes. "A young lady doesn't punch things."

"True," her mother admitted, smiling. "But you can still help me with these flowers, can't you?"

"Uh, my ikebana days are kind of over..." Sakura tried to avoid this, but her mother just tusked again.

"Young lady, you got a perfect score in the academy in Ikebana, didn't you?" She reminded her.

"Yes, mom," Sakura mumbled. That had mostly been her mother's and Ino's fault, though. After her mom had heard they actually learned something proper in the academy, she had been ecstatic and let Sakura do all the flower work at home. This was another thing about her mom; she needed every room to have some sort of floral arrangement in it. Sakura had no idea why or where that came from, but from what she could tell, her mom had always had some sort of fascination with flowers. Hence, for instance, her name. It had also been a factor in making her spend as much time with Ino as she did after Ino had adopted her; her mom was one of the Yamanaka's best costumers.

Her mother meanwhile had gotten another small container for a second arrangement and placed it in front of her, before pressing three branches into her hand.

"...Cherry blossoms, mom?" Sakura sighed, trying to sound exasperated, when she actually was on the verge of terrified. Cherry blossoms were a bad sign. When her mom got cherry blossoms of all things, it meant she had one of her infrequent episodes of... Melancholy. "Really?"

"They happened to be in bloom, was I supposed to ignore them?" Her mom tried justifying her choice and handed her a kenza. "Now do what you were taught to do."

Sakura just made the assumption that her mom wasn't alluding to punching through solid walls with these instructions, and started measuring the branches in relation to the container before placing them at the right angles. She did all that way faster than her mom could, since ninjas learned pretty early on how to measure things using only their hand span and how to estimate angles accurately. It was a lifesaving skill and usually needed for throwing stuff at people, but hey. It came in handy in appeasing mothers occasionally as well.

"Must you be so clinical about this?" Her mom sighed while watching her work, unfortunately not all that appeased. "This is art! Do it with passion!"

"Sorry," Sakura muttered and tried to very passionately move the last branch into a 15 degree angle. "What else?"

Her mother just shook her head and dragged the arrangement towards herself.

"You just go take the other one into the living room," she instructed while carefully placing violets between the branches in Sakura's work. "Thank you for your help, though."

"Right," Sakura sighed, and carried the triangular container filled with ornamental plum branches and lilies to the adjacent living room. Her mom took the weirdest things way too seriously. It had come in handy during academy times, nobody had ever been so thorough in teaching tea ceremonies as her mom had been, not even the teachers (Sasuke doubting her skill there was still nagging at her), so she had gotten a perfect score there as well. But there was nothing that could teach her how to play the koto any better than the basics, not even her mom. Well, her mom’s musical talents were rather sporadic as well. She had a pleasant singing voice though, something Sakura had definitely not inherited either.

"Can I help you with anything else?" She asked when she returned to her mother in the dining room.

"No, dear," her mother said, still focused on the cherry blossom branch arrangement Sakura had started. "Breakfast for you is ready, though. Just some rice and miso soup, I'm afraid, until a few minutes ago I thought you had to leave early..."

"That's okay, thank you," Sakura said and hurried off into the kitchen to eat.

"Why do you think you're not going to the hospital today?" Her mother asked just when she had started slurping her soup.

"No idea," Sakura replied, almost choking.

"Don't talk while you're eating," her mother scolded her. "Do you think you'll have to do more fighting today?"

"No idea," Sakura said again after swallowing too much rice at once. "Probably, that's what the training grounds are for."

"I don't like this," her mother reminded her in that sad, serene voice she always used to guilt trip Sakura into stuff. "I thought you were going for more of a balance, you know? I mean, it's enough that you come home with bruises most days of the week, and now they're taking away your off-days?"

Sakura really had to suppress the urge to explain to her mom that her so called _off-days_ were way more stressful than the sporadic fighting they did and that the bruises she came home with should have been the norm ages ago, and also that she could really do with more combat training and less medical training if this team thing was supposed to work out, but she just took another sip of her soup, swallowed another mouth full of rice, and then calmly responded:

"Well, I've done a lot of hours at the hospital last week, so maybe that's why."

"True..." Her mother sighed again. "I just wish they gave you more regular hours, you know? You go to work, you come home without injuries, and with a regular schedule, and I get to spend time with my daughter now and then..."

"Sorry," Sakura muttered, poking at her soup. She was rapidly losing appetite. "But, uh, I'll never really have regular hours, you know? I get wacky shifts at the hospital, or intensive care cases like last week, or I'm on missions. Really, the training days are the most regular thing I'm ever gonna get, since they usually end when Jiraiya-sama gets too bored with us or something, so, uh, count your blessings."

"I suppose you're right," her mother said and came into the kitchen, cherry blossom violets (and also some fern) arrangement and all. She set the finished work down on the window sill before coming over to hug Sakura, who was sitting on a stool eating her breakfast, from behind, while burying her face between her daughter's shoulder and neck. Sakura suddenly sat very still. There was plenty of physical affection between her and her mom on her mom's normal days, of course, but whenever her mom got like this... "I really should consider myself lucky," her mother muttered into her neck. "You're still here with me, after all."

Okay, that did it. Screw breakfast, Sakura couldn't spend another minute with her mother at the moment. She wiggled free from her mother's embrace, gave her a quick peck on the cheek and then hurried out of the room.

"Where are you going?" Her mother asked. "Your training doesn't start until ten!"

"I'm going to check on Tsunade-sama," Sakura lied. "If she doesn't need me at the hospital, Shizune took over my shift. And that means Tsunade needs someone to get her to do paperwork." She hurried up the stairs, trying to remain calm while her lungs refused to accept any oxygen into them. No, she was only imagining getting choked right now. There was nothing constricting her, it was just her mom. Yes. Nothing to be worried about. Her mom just sometimes got like that, and it always passed. Nothing to be worried about.  
She grabbed her kunai pouch and medical belt and headed out, saying goodbye to her mother when passing through the kitchen again. It would all be okay; she just needed to get some fresh air. Yes. That.

 

***

 

She had barely gotten one block away from her house when Ino came running her way for some reason.

"Oh hi," Sakura greeted her, forcing a smile. "What are you doing here?"

"Are you kidding me, Forehead Girl?" Ino asked her, panting. "Your mom came by this morning. She got cherry blossoms."

"Oh, yeah..." Sakura looked away uncomfortably. "I'm fine, really."

Of course Ino knew; it had been Ino who noticed the connection between what kinds of flowers her mom got for home and her moods in the first place, way back when. So Ino had heard of that somehow and immediately hurried over here? That was... Oddly touching, considering they weren't even really friends again. Sakura felt her throat tighten. Ugh, now she got emotional about stuff, not a good sign.

"Bullshit," Ino cut into her monologue and grabbed her by the arm. "You look like you need tea. And dango. I know a place!" And off she went, dragging Sakura along and giving her enough time to wipe some stupid tears off her face. What the fuck was going on with her today?

 

"So, spill," Ino demanded while pulling a sweet dumpling off the skewer.

"Spill what?" Sakura asked, taken aback. So far, their conversation had mostly been Ino doing some vapid chit-chat and deciding that though it was totally in-season, they really did not want Hanami Dango. Very thoughtful of her, but Sakura wouldn't have cared about that too much.

"Well, your new team arrangements," Ino specified, mouth full. "Especially Sasuke-kun. Didn't you spend a week holed up with him in a room in some sort of top secret treatment or something? I mean, I wasn't even allowed to enter the floor he was stationed on, and I'm a medic too, you know!"

While Ino was indeed a medic, she was nothing but a simple combat healer and emergency worker on occasion; the kind of person who could mend wounds and cuts and nothing bigger. She wasn't allowed to practice anywhere in the hospital outside the part treating the most minor wounds that required hardly any healing at all. So her not being allowed somewhere despite her status as a medic-nin really wasn't anything rare or surprising; this just likely had been the first time she bothered to test whether she could.

"I'm not allowed to tell you what was wrong with him," Sakura declared first and foremost. "Nor any details of what I did in there."

"I heard someone talk about him turning into some giant beast that could only be tamed by your voice or something," Ino interrupted her. "That's made up, right?"

"It's a gross exaggeration," Sakura agreed.

"So that means there's _some_ truth to it," Ino deduced. Sakura sighed.

"In its very core, kind of?" She admitted, sounding unsure. It was actually quite spot-on, but again, she was not allowed to disclose this information to Ino. Or anyone, really. "Nothing too dramatic, I assure you."

"Huh." Ino sounded disappointed. "So what did you really do in his room for a week if it wasn't taming his inner monster with the sweet sound of your voice?"

Sakura choked on her tea. Was _that_ what people were saying? Holy shit.

"Nothing much," she evaded the question. "Just, like, observing him, getting him to eat, things like that."

"And only _you_ could do it, and not, I don't know, some kind of nurse or someone who _usually_ does this kind of stuff?" Ino's training in gathering information was really showing; she was falling for none of Sakura's evasive tactics.

"Because reasons," she therefore just answered. "Reasons I'm not allowed to disclose, so please stop asking."

"Okay, fine." Ino rolled her eyes in annoyance. "Don't tell me, then. So... I dunno, tell me something else about Sasuke. I haven't even seen him since you dragged him back here. Are you allowed to talk about that, by the way?"

"Nope," Sakura said, shifting in her seat uncomfortably. "A lot of stuff regarding him is top secret now... So... What am I supposed to tell you?"

"Oh, I don't know..." Ino said in that vapid tone that made her come off as way more shallow and stupid than she actually was. She usually used it to get her way around older men and make people spill all their secrets, because hey, what harm could talking to a pretty, dumb blond girl be? Sakura knew that tactic though and the mere tone of Ino's voice made her skin crawl. This was not going to be pleasant. "Like, how hot is he now?"

Sakura choked on her tea.

" _Excuse me_?" She managed to cough indignantly after some time.

"Well, sure, he's always been really pretty," Ino elaborated, vapidly playing with a strand of her hair. "But, you know, that was like, ages ago. Boys are starting to grow hot now. Some more than others. So what about him?"

Sakura blinked in confusion. Huh. Hot. She hadn't really thought about Sasuke that way, to be honest. He still looked like Sasuke, and right now, after having been holed up with him while his body performed every nastiness it was capable of, _hot_ wasn't really something she'd associated with him anymore and probably wouldn't for a long time, so... Well... Except for like, maybe that _one_ instance when he had... Uh... Looked sort of pleased after she'd punched him? Ugh, that was still so weird to think about, and it seemed like it had been _ages_ ago, but... Well, that's probably the closest she'd ever considered him hot since his return. Most other times, being an opponent, patient or asshole had kind of overridden her perception of him.

"You're blushing," Ino claimed. Sakura looked at her skeptically. She wasn't prone to blushing at all, and didn't feel any heat in her cheeks or anything, so her automatic assumption was that Ino was bluffing. Much of information gathering was actually bullshitting your way through stuff and hoping someone would buy your bullshit and crack at some point, and Sakura had been Ino's primary target practice when it came to that over the years, so she was usually spot-on on calling Ino's bluffs. This was one of these times, she concluded, as Ino rolled her eyes. "Okay, you're not, whatever. You look like you want to. So spill."

"Well, I guess he's... Attractive as always," Sakura caved in reluctantly. "I mean, I can't really tell after, you know, the hospital stuff, but yeah. There you go."

"Hm." Ino sounded less interested in this information than Sakura had expected her to be. "Are you still going after him?"

"No," Sakura said very decidedly. "I'm trying to become a professional, so no more swooning or throwing myself at him or anything like that."

"But you do still like him, right?" Ino continued her interrogation, while examining her nails and looking completely harmless in the process. Pulling all the stops, apparently.

"Does that matter?" Sakura asked back, trying not to sound too defensive. She was still unsure on that one, after all.

"I suppose not," Ino sighed. "Well, if you're not going after him anymore, I guess that means you're out of the competition. Good for me, and stuff." She finished her tea in one big gulp, the slightest grin in her face. Sakura just stared. What the hell was her game plan here?

"I... Guess?" Sakura then said hesitantly. She honestly couldn't see _anyone_ having much of a chance with Sasuke, ever. Well, okay she could see one person, and while that person was also blond, they definitely were not Ino... Or herself. Well, she wasn't blond, so whatever. Oh god, what was she thinking now?

"By the way, you're buying," Ino then declared, got up, waved, and left the tea house without another word.

Oh wow.

 

 

* * *

 

"Where's Kakashi?" Sasuke demanded, showing up twenty minutes late to training.

"Anyone else having a déjà-vu right now, or is it just me?" Jiraiya asked, sounding annoyed. "A good morning to you too, by the way. So glad you could join us."

"He's right, though!" Naruto yelled from the middle of the fighting pit. Well, one of him was, the others were busy fighting Sakura. "We haven't seen Kakashi-sensei in ages! What's up with that?"

"Nothing to concern yourselves with!" Jiraiya answered.

"I was promised special training," Sasuke hissed in a way that somehow was audible even from quite a few feet away and whilst fighting off Naruto clones. "You fail to deliver. Where is Kakashi? We had a deal."

"Oh, failing to deliver, am I?" Jiraiya snapped back. "Well, then I guess we can cancel the special afternoon treat I have for you. Too bad, and here I thought you might be interested in some actual genjutsu training."

"Genjutsu training?" Sakura asked, momentarily distracted, which caused her to be gently thrown out the ring by a chain of Naruto clones. She wasn't even upset about that anymore, just appreciated less bruises to show for her loss.

"Yes, for you too, girly," Jiraiya assured her. "Time to make something of your natural gifts, for a change."

"That sounds kind of wrong coming from you," Naruto informed him, having reduced himself to just one specimen again. "Do I get genjutsu training, too?"

"Afraid not," Jiraiya said. "You and genjutsus are just not meant to be. You'll get to train with different opponents for a change."

"Ah, well, that's more fun, anyways," Naruto declared. "Genjutsu practice always made my head hurt," he then informed Sakura in an aside. She grinned.

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Anyways, so since Uchiha here was finally considerate enough to grace us with his presence, why don't you get him warmed up, kid?" Jiraiya pretended to suggest while he was actually commanding. Sakura was still waiting for the day he bestowed a nickname upon Sasuke, but somehow she got the feeling he only gave nicknames affectionately. It still bugged her a little that hers was centered entirely around her being a girl, but oh well.

She sat down next to Jiraiya in the grass, who was yet again scribbling in his newest manuscript, and watched her boys fight. For some reason, they seemed to be sticking to the rules from last time, as in, only using taijutsu for the time being. Weird.

"Have you heard from Kakashi at all?" She tried to pry some information from Jiraiya. He did seem chattier with her than with the other two, for some reason. Then again, Sakura had always found, at least after Ino had pointed it out to her after she herself had learned it in some information gathering class for preschoolers, that old men were a lot more likely to tell their entire biographies to unthreatening little girls, even if those girls were not very subtle in asking about it. Well, she could be a lot more subtle than a four year old, so she estimated the odds of getting something out of him to be relatively high.

"We have," Jiraiya answered curtly. "More than a week ago."

"Wasn't he scheduled to be back by then?" Sakura asked, even though she didn't have to. She had checked up on the roster while helping Tsunade with paper work recently, and Kakashi had been expected back even before the whole hospital episode had happened.

"He got delayed," Jiraiya pointed out the obvious.

"You don't say," she said lowly and rolled her eyes for effectiveness. Jiraiya sighed deeply.

"Look," he said, sounding somewhat agitated. "I'm not at liberty to tell even you where he went or why, just that it's not the kind of mission where we can just send out a random search party or something. But yeah, we are starting to get worried, but don't expect me to admit that to the Uchiha."

"Of course not," Sakura said, nodding. "That would just worsen his attitude."

"Yeah, that." Jiraiya sighed again. "Your beloved sensei is a big boy, okay? One of the best in this village, he can take care of himself."

"And yet you're worried," Sakura repeated his words.

"Yeah, because sometimes, stuff is just too big even for the extremely talented," he explained, then chuckled. "Not that you would know, you guys have a talent for getting out of situations that are way beyond your ability to manage."

"True," Sakura admitted. "Personally, I blame Naruto's super luck."

"Luck has less to do with it than you think," Jiraiya muttered darkly, then he tensed and looked towards the edge of the woods. “Someone’s coming.”

Sakura followed his gaze, while Naruto and Sasuke kept on sparring.

“Anyone we should be worried about?” she asked, only mildly concerned.

“I don’t think so,” Jiraiya answered. “A civilian, most likely.”

And, sure enough, about half a minute later, a definitely civilian looking woman carrying large bags tentatively entered the clearing. A very familiar looking civilian woman, in fact.

“Mom?!” Sakura cried out in exasperation, causing Naruto and Sasuke to freeze mid-fight and stare at her as she hurried over to her mother. It was usual for her to be a little... Odd during her episodes, but she mostly confined herself to the house during those and tried to keep Sakura there by all means possible as well. This was something completely new. “Mom, what are you doing here?”

“Making sure you eat lunch,” her mother chided her. “You forgot to take your box again today! How can you keep training on an empty stomach?” Her mother then looked up at her assembled extended team and smiled. “So these are your teammates?” She asked. “Oh dear. I thought there would only be three of you… Now I don’t have enough lunch boxes for everyone…”

“Ah, don’t worry about it, madam.” Jiraiya was the first one to be able to tear his gaze from her and actually talk.

“So you are her sensei?” Sakura’s mom asked and walked towards the two older men.

“I share the position with a colleague,” Jiraiya explained, shooting a glare at Naruto and Sasuke, who were pretty openly gaping, as if they’d never seen a mom before.

“Then I would like to thank you for taking such good care of my daughter,” Sakura’s mother said and bowed deeply and gracefully in front of them. “At first, I was a little worried, my little girl spending all her time with strange men and doing such dangerous activities, but she has assured me you are all most respectable people.”

Sakura couldn’t help but smirk at how Jiraiya tried hiding his newest manuscript behind his back while squirming a little under her mom's gaze.

“It is so unfortunate we’ve never gotten to meet before,” her mother continued, completely oblivious of the effect she had on… Well, everyone. “I have spoken with the Hokage-sama and Shizune-sama several times, but Sakura always avoided introducing you…”

“Is that why you’re here?” Sakura asked, rolling her eyes. “Mom, this isn’t like school, where you meet the teachers every year and they tell you how I’m doing…”

“No, I’m here to make sure you are well fed,” her mother chided her again. “But since the opportunity presents itself, I would also like to extend an invitation for dinner to the whole team, at your earliest convenience.” She bowed again.

“That is… Very kind of you,” Jiraiya said, clearing his throat.

“Yes, mom, thanks,” Sakura said, getting annoyed. “I’ll let you know. Now… Could you please… Go home? We’re training here!”

Her mother just patted her head and smiled at her sadly.

“Manners, Sakura.” She reminded her. “But yes, I need to go home. Any evening for dinner will be fine, just let me know.” She bowed again. “Please continue to take such good care of my daughter.”

“Of course.” Jiraiya assured her, and she took her leave.

An awkward silence followed. Naruto and Sasuke made their way over to the other two once Sakura’s mom was out of sight.

“So… That was… Your mom?” Naruto asked her excitedly, barely able to contain his gushing.

“Yes,” Sakura answered, trying to hide her embarrassment. “And she invited you all to dinner.”

“Awesome!” Naruto jumped in excitement. “So, do you have a dad, too?”

That one caught Sakura by surprise. It shouldn’t have, really. Still, she found herself clenching her fists, biting her lips and glaring at the floor, unsure how to answer, if at all.

She didn’t have to, though, since Jiraiya let out an exasperated sigh.

“Naruto, what’s the first rule in our business?” He asked, crossing his arms.

“Always look underneath the underneath?” Naruto guessed.

“No, the other one.”

“Those who break the rules are trash, but those who abandon their comrades are worse than trash?”

“A good sentiment, but more Kakashi's thing than a general guideline.”

“Keep your friends close, but your enemies closer?”

“No.”

“Never skip breakfast?”

“Are being dumb on purpose?” Sasuke snapped at him, but Naruto only gave him a wide-eyed, innocent shrug.

“Naruto, you don’t ask people about their parents,” Jiraiya finally explained. “Haven’t you picked that up by now? How do you like being asked about your parents?”

“Hey, I wouldn’t mind anyone asking!” Naruto defended himself. “I mean, I’m probably the wrong person to ask, since I don’t know anything, anyways, but still! Ask away, anything you’d like to know?”

Sakura wasn’t quite sure what was more amusing here; Naruto’s nonchalant behavior, or how uncomfortable it seemed to make Jiraiya. Weird.

“It’s okay, I don’t mind,” she then said, not sure herself if she was lying. “My dad’s gone.”

“Like dead?” Naruto asked. “I’m so sorry!”

“I don’t know,” Sakura elaborated. “He might be, for all we know. I never met him, he just left when my mom was pregnant and we never heard of him again.”

“And you’re mother’s a… Civilian?” Sasuke asked her in a disbelieving tone.

“Yes, of course,” she answered, taken aback. “I mean, if she wasn’t, I probably would have known more than the basic academy stuff after graduation, right?”

“Not what I meant,” he said, looking away.

“It’s the way she walks,” Jiraiya said. “The way she talks, the way she carries herself - you don’t see that a lot with civilian women.”

“Please don’t talk about my mother that way,” Sakura asked him politely, trying and utterly failing not to sound completely creeped out, because, ew, this was her mom!

Jiraiya just laughed.

“Ah, no girly, it’s not what you think.” He then assured her. “Moms are not my type, anyways. This was a purely professional observation.”

“Right.” Sakura said, rather unconvinced. “Well, she did train to be a Geisha until… Well, things happened. Whatever.”

"You heard the girl," Jiraiya said, clapping his hands. "Let's get back to training now; we'll pick a date for dinner later. Your fight wasn't done yet, shoot!"

"You really don't have to come over for dinner," Sakura mumbled uncomfortably.

"Nah, that's okay," Jiraiya assured her. "It'll be a team bonding activity. Something you should have done ages ago."

Sakura bit back a comment that she would have preferred these things to happen on neutral ground, and also that she wasn't sure how much team bonding could take place when the boys stared at her mom like she was some sort of holy figure or something, but hey. Not her place to question her sensei in this, was it?

"You still don't look too happy, though," Jiraiya mused. "Don't want us at your home?"

"Uh..." Sakura said evasively. "That's not really it... It's just..." She sighed deeply. "My mom's a bit... Special, you know?"

"I might," Jiraiya said. "These two probably won't notice. What, is she going to try and poison everyone? Perform weird rituals with entrails and ask us to join? Trying to summon any dark forces?"

"No, not that kind of special," Sakura answered grumblingly. "Ugh, forget I said anything."

"I sense some pent-up aggression coming from you," Jiraiya noted, sound way too amused for her liking. "Go tag in there and switch places with Naruto, why don't you? Might as well put that to use."

 

 

* * *

 

 

"Thish ish amashing!" Naruto exclaimed while wolfing the delicate dishes Sakura's mom had prepared for an equally delicate bento with great fervor. "Like, not ramen levelsh of amashing, obvshuily, but shtill, amashing!"

"I'll make sure to tell her that," Sakura assured him and laughed, partially because of Naruto's enthusiasm about proper food, and partially because of Sasuke's disgusted face as he turned away to dodge the rice that had flown out of Naruto's mouth during his exclamation.

"And she like, makes stuff like this for you every day?" Naruto asked after swallowing his mouthful of food. "That's so cool."

"She tries," Sakura answered.

"Hey, I cooked for you a lot, too," Jiraiya grumbled. "And I never saw you that amazed by my food, ungrateful brat."

"That's because your food sucks," Naruto retorted. "Like, seriously, there was a reason the first thing I discovered at every new town we went to was some sort of ramen stand."

"Mainly because ramen," Sakura mused, chuckling again.

"Well, yeah, that," Naruto admitted. "But his cooking sucked, too!"

"At least I cooked actual food," Jiraiya muttered. "Unlike what you produced when you briefly took over."

"Hey, I totally made us food!" Naruto argued.

"You made us instant ramen. Five days in a row."

"That's totally food! And it was in different flavors!"

Sakura was almost rolling on the floor laughing at this little exchange when she noticed Sasuke tensing next to her and glaring at the tree line not too far from where they were seated next to their usual training spot. Come to think of it, she hadn't even noticed he had been relaxed before now. Still, she followed his gaze to where three figures had just emerged from the woods.

"What are you guys doing here?" Naruto shouted excitedly at them, as Team 8 approached them, with Kiba looking smug, Hinata looking a little embarrassed and Shino not betraying any emotion at all. Kurenai was curiously absent.

"We're here to kick your ass!" Kiba replied from afar, and Naruto let out a loud laugh.

"Hah, yeah, just try that!" He replied, and then turned around towards Jiraiya so quick he probably gave himself whiplash. "Seriously, why are they here?"

"Well, he's sort of right," Jiraiya answered sheepishly. "Those three are here for your entertainment, while the other two go train with Kurenai."

"Where the hell is she, then?" Sasuke asked in his usual polite and reserved tone.

"She's waiting for you in the forest," Hinata said, while bowing politely for a greeting, though that bow was not quite directed at Sasuke. "It's good to see you!" That hadn't been directed at Sasuke, either.

"Well, you heard the girl," Jiraiya then said, actually directed at Sasuke. "Scram."

 

So Sasuke and Sakura pretty much had no choice but to walk into to forest to the spot Hinata had indicated. They waited for five minutes, looking around expectantly.

"If she's trying to make a big entrance, she'd better get started already," Sakura finally complained. "We don't have all day."

"This already is her big entrance," Sasuke argued, albeit not sounding any less annoyed than her. "Maybe it's messing with our sense of time, too."

"Yes, I know this is a genjutsu." Sakura rolled her eyes. How unperceptive did he think she was? Not having special genjutsu-proof eyes didn't make her special needs yet. "It's just a really boring one, you know? I was expecting something more... Flashy. Or disturbing. Or anything."

"Maybe we're supposed to break it," Sasuke suggested. "To show that we can."

"Fine." She made a quick hand seal and broke out of the illusion. Or at least she clearly sensed that she broke out of the illusion, the scenery didn't change at all. Which either meant that the genjutsu had just been an exact replica of reality, or they were still in one and had just broken through the first layer. She tried breaking it again, but nothing happened.

"This is reality, right?" She asked Sasuke, growing more and more confused. He grunted in agreement. "So what are we supposed to do now? Track her down? Cast a genjutsu on each other?"

"Do you even know a genjutsu you could cast?" Sasuke countered, getting more and more irritated about wasting his time.

"Not really." She shrugged. "That's what we're supposed to train with Kurenai for, right? But I could always break one of yours. Like the one you used on Naruto. You know, the thing that didn't involve creepy mind control and manipulation of my subconscious."

Sasuke was just about to reply something when a sudden shift in the wind occurred. Well, that wasn't quite accurate; where there had just been a pleasant breeze, the wind just downright stopped completely. They both tensed in anticipation. But again, nothing more exciting happened.

"So do we break this again or should we just wait it out?" Sakura asked, but Sasuke had already formed the seal. She sighed and followed suit.

The wind was back on. Still no sign of Kurenai.

"This is stupid," Sasuke declared. "Stop wasting my time and show yourself."

Nothing happened. Again. Sasuke rolled his eyes and started walking away.

"We know she's here," Sakura reminded him. "Don't you think leaving is a little rude?"

"She's wasting my time," he replied seriously irritated. "That is rude."

But as soon as he reached the edge of the clearing, the scenery shifted and they were standing a few feet from where they'd been, Sasuke directly facing a tree.

"Well, at least something is happening now." Sakura tried to sound upbeat, but this little game was annoying her as well.

"And it's still stupid." Sasuke broke the illusion again. They were back on the clearing. Sakura looked around some more. The wind was gone again, so...

"Multiple layers now," she informed Sasuke and broke the second one. Nothing changed, except that the wind returned, but this time from the wrong direction.

"And she's messing with our senses." Sasuke already sounded just a little less annoyed when he broke the third layer. The wind was blowing the right way again, and while to Sakura everything seemed just fine, Sasuke started looking around frantically, formed the release seal again, but seemed seriously panicked when nothing happened. Sakura ran over to him.

"Are you okay?" She asked, seriously concerned before realizing what was going on. Kurenai had him in a much more potent genjutsu now. She grabbed his hand and caught a small glimpse of some kind of... Tree... And a kunai, before trying to release it herself. The effort of this shook her to her core and made her drop to her knees. Sasuke was bleeding from a small cut on his arm and collapsed with her. And suddenly, Kurenai was standing directly behind them, looking intrigued.

"Not bad," she said, wiping Sasuke's blood off the Kunai in her hand. "Good perception, both of you. Though you could work on your patience, Sasuke. Genjutsu take time."

"What the hell was that?" Sasuke asked, glaring at her, Sharingan activated and everything.

"My little specialty," Kurenai informed him, unimpressed. "Very hard to break out of, even from the outside. Good job there." She nodded at Sakura approvingly. "Though your brother did better."

"You fought my brother?" She now had a lot less of his rage and a lot more of his attention on her.

"I did," Kurenai confirmed. "When he last visited almost two years ago. I used this exact technique on him and he turned it against me. I've never had that happen to me before, and you still have a long way to go before getting to that level. So do you still think this is a waste of time?"

This woman was playing Sasuke like a fiddle and it was the most amazing thing Sakura had ever witnessed when it came to teaching. It was very plain and obvious manipulation, sure, but the fact that it was true made it all the more delicious to see Sasuke focus intently on her, his hostility overtaken by genuine curiosity. Kurenai just smirked.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," she said. "So, we got the first lesson started already, sensing and dispelling genjutsu. Tell me, how were you able to tell you were in a genjutsu the whole time?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Yes, good point, these eyes of yours," Kurenai commented on that. "But those only take you so far. What are you going to do, just have them activated permanently in case someone tries something on you? From what I hear, that can get draining."

"I turn them on when I fight and when something seems fishy," Sasuke said in a low voice, as if he couldn't believe he was actually playing along in this throwback to academy days. "That's enough."

"Yes, that's a good philosophy to live by," Kurenai agreed, with a little exasperated note in her voice. "But _fishy_ isn't quite the academic answer I am looking for here. Come on, this is less than basic."

"May I?" Sakura asked, unsure whether she was supposed to be an active participant in these lessons or just around to maybe catch a few pointers while Sasuke received all the special attention. This _was_ mostly about him and his quest for revenge, after all. Kurenai however nodded, looking a little surprised at her request, so she continued. "With fishy, he's referring to the little inconsistencies in reality that genjutsu create, especially low-level ones. The ones you cast on us for example took away the wind, or made it come from a completely different direction, which made them somewhat easy to spot."

"True, but there's a tiny blemish in that answer," Kurenai acknowledged with a nod. "Can you spot it yourself?"

"You messed with our senses, too," Sasuke answered before Sakura could think about it. "When the wind changed direction, that wasn't a large-scale projection of the scenery around us, it was just some manipulation of our perception."

"While that's basically what all genjutsu is, you are correct," Kurenai agreed. "This part was a different kind."

"It was personalized instead of cast on a specific area," Sakura added quickly before anyone else could. She would not be out-shone in a theoretical lesson goddammit.

"Exactly," Kurenai said, nodding. "And if you had paused to compare notes, you would have noticed that both of you felt the wind coming from different directions. And just to make that clear, that was a separate genjutsu altogether and not just another layer."

"So are you going to teach us how to do this or what?" Sasuke asked, his patience for lectures obviously fleeting.

"Why, yes, I am," Kurenai answered, her voice a tad sharper. "Mostly because Jiraiya-sama very kindly asked me to and agreed to give my own team some fighting practice, and not out of any sense of obligation towards you. I may choose to cancel the lessons whenever, or give them only to your teammate, if I so desire. Whatever agreement you may or may not have with the Hokage or Jiraiya-sama or whomever does not affect me, and if you wish to learn from me, you should remember that."

Sasuke's eyes sparked with rage and defiance for a second, but when he only met Kurenai's genuine I-don't-care attitude, he kind of slumped into himself, rolled his eyes, and muttered: "Whatever."

"Well then," she said and rubbed her hands together. "Time to get to the long and short of it. Casting genjustus, which is the main reason I went over this little discourse with you. Point one: You need to know what you're casting, so you need to decide whether an area-based genjutsu is appropriate or a personalized one. In ninety percent of the cases it will be the latter; area-based genjutsus are not for combat, they're for ambushes or group fights you can prepare for, but the decision is up to you always.

"Casting works as follows; you visualize the illusion you want to cast in the way you intend your opponent to see it, then you concentrate on their consciousness and focus your chakra there, never losing sight of what you want them to see. You'll share a vision, and until they break free of the illusion, they're completely at your mercy."

"Isn't that a little impractical?" Sakura asked, confused. "I mean, that means I'll have to focus on it all the time and will be distracted from other things going on around me, and the illusion lasts only as long as my imagination. Isn't there a way to, I don't know, cast the genjutsu and then detach myself from it?"

"Good point," Kurenai acknowledged and nodded. "Do you know how to knit?"

"Uhm... A little?" Sakura answered. How was that related to _anything_?

"More advanced genjutsu are basically a form of knitting," Kurenai elaborated. "You work on them as fast as you can until you have a finished piece and then you cast it off and leave it behind. The trouble with that is that you lose control over your piece; if you spot a mistake, you won't be able to correct it without tearing something up to gain access again. And you also won't notice when your opponent breaks out, which can be dangerous unless you have reason to be very confident in your abilities, and we have a long way to go until you're there. Any more questions?"

"So how does casting multiple layers work?" Sasuke asked.

"Okay, both of you, you have to learn how to walk before we get to running," Kurenai reminded them. "But hypothetically, that's like knitting a sweater; you cast off individual parts to work on the next one. You have to make them good so your opponent won't break out until the next one is finished though. And in the end you put it all together, mentally of course, and they'll have to break through every single piece to make it out. On a less advanced level, you just do the simple version, keep all the different things you want to do in mind and cast the next 'layer' once they break out of the first one. It's not actually layered but comes off that way, which is what I did to you before. Anything else?"

Sakura shook her head. Sure, it was all still a little vague to her, but usually the pieces of techniques came together while actually practicing them. And ironically, it had worked the same way when her mother had tried teaching her how to knit. With less than stellar results, admittedly.

"Okay then," Kurenai said. "Then you try to cast something on him. And you, Uchiha, just keep your eyes turned off for the moment and give her a chance, got it?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes but kept them black in compliance. Sakura bit her lips in contemplation. The tricky stuff about this was that Sasuke knew a genjutsu was coming. So the second anything seemed off, he would know. He'd be actively watching out for things, too. Hm. So whatever she conjured up had to be subtle, almost unnoticeable. Shifting the wind was out of the question; Kurenai had already done that and he'd be prepared for that. Hmmm...

"Are you going to start any time soon?" Sasuke asked in annoyance. "How about I start? I know how this works."

"No..." She said hesitantly, trying not to show her excitement. He'd just given her an idea. "Just... Give me a minute to come up with something, okay?"

He rolled his eyes again and started drumming an impatient pattern on his knees. Sakura started focusing just a tiny little bit of chakra on him, trying to make time slow for him; the more impatient he got, the more likely he was to believe what came next.

"Your minute is up," he snarled after less than twenty seconds. Okay, so what she was doing was working. She chewed on her lips a little and imagined herself blushing under pressure. Sasuke wrinkled his nose at her. Good, he was buying it, then. Time to take it a little further. Sakura imagined getting up and impatiently walking back and forth, stumbling some excuse about not having much of an imagination to begin with. Sasuke's eyes moved, following the way her illusionary self took up and down the clearing. Good. She then tried for something a little less subtle and shifted the background behind her pacing figure to the other side of the clearing, which Sasuke seemed not to notice again, still too convinced she didn't manage to come up with anything to get suspicious. Well. That was probably the first time being underestimated worked out for her. Time to go for the kill.

"Really?" Sasuke asked exasperated when to him it seemed is if cherry blossoms were being blown into his face. " _That's_ the best you can come up with?"

"That wasn't me!" Illusionary Sakura assured him and pointed at an imaginary cherry blossom tree behind him. She'd have to thank her mom for this later.

"That's even worse," Sasuke said while in reality staring into empty space. Kurenai was smirking. "You can't even be unoriginal; you just don't get anything done at all - woah!" To him, the cherry blossoms had just turned into needles and attacked him. "Okay, not bad," he admitted and dispelled the illusion, but Sakura was quick enough to make him think he was facing the tree that in reality was standing behind him. He turned around and hit his head against the trunk so violently he fell and landed on the ground. Sakura couldn't help herself and started laughing. Kurenai seemed highly amused as well.

"What the hell?" Sasuke asked, rubbing his head and looking around in confusion. "You fucked up my sense of direction!"

"Among other things," Kurenai confirmed. "Not bad for the start, from what I could tell, but not very aggressive. If your goal was to annoy him instead of actually fighting him, good job."

"My goal was to come up with something he wouldn't recognize as an illusion immediately," Sakura explained. "And, well, it worked for longer than I had expected."

"Yes, that it did indeed," Kurenai agreed. "His turn now, same rules, let's see what you've got."

 

***

 

What he got turned out to be an endless supply of hypnotizing techniques that were a lot more easy to see through than the creepy subconscious thing he'd done before, and also a twisted imagination of mutilated bodies of him and Naruto and Kakashi and even her mother to trigger her instincts of running over there and helping immediately in any way she could, which had made her run into trees a few times in retribution. At least he hadn't used any type of injury that would have reminded her of the 'landslide' she caused which was... Surprisingly decent of him.

By the time Kurenai let them leave because she had plans or something, the sun was already setting. They walked in silence to where the others had been sparring, only to find a very groggy Shino, a very happy Naruto, and Hinata massaging a few choice spots on Kiba's body.

"So I see you had fun," Sakura noted and knelt down between Shino and Kiba. "Anything I can help with?"

"No, that's alright," Hinata said. "I just sealed off his tenketsu, it will only take a minute."

"Me and Hinata-chan kicked their asses!" Naruto elaborated. "It was awesome!"

"You cheated!" Kiba protested. "You did something funny with Shino's bugs!"

"I didn't do anything!" Naruto protested. "He just passed out!"

"Are you okay?" Sakura asked Shino, who was looking about as bewildered as you could while wearing sunglasses and a collar that covered most of your face. He just shook his head in confusion.

"That never happened before," he muttered. "His chakra... It's just... Inedible..."

"Where did you kids leave Kurenai?" Jiraiya asked. "And how did the training go?"

"The training went fine," Sakura answered immediately. "And Kurenai said she had plans, or something."

Team 8 exchanged glances at that. Kiba sniggered, Hinata giggled softly and Shino's mouth twitched a little. Then Kiba and Shino turned seriously at once and exchanged a glance.

"So, uh..." Kiba started with a side-glance at Hinata. "Do _you_ guys have plans after this?"

"Not really," Naruto answered. "Like, I was gonna go home and make myself some ramen, but I'm like, open to suggestions."

"We usually go out to eat something after training," Shino elaborated. "And we were thinking whether you might like to join us."

"Yes, they would like to do that," Jiraiya answered before anyone else could voice their opinions. "It's team bonding. Part of the training. Have fun."

Sasuke groaned at that announcement to voice his discontent, but had given up arguing for the day. Sakura had managed to tire him out a lot, too, after all. It turned out that when it came to genjutsu and he wasn't allowed to use his eyes (a rule he actually followed for a change) they were about evenly matched, even if Sakura had too many scruples to _really_ trigger him like he had tried with her. Or not really, maybe? He had left out the landslide entirely, after all...

 

 

* * *

 

 

Team 8 chose a rather cozy yakiniku restaurant, which apparently Kurenai had recommended to them. It was a rather nice looking place, but somehow Sakura had the weird feeling she'd heard about this before... Well, roasted meat not prepared by her mom usually wasn't her style, and when she was eating out, it had either been with Naruto at Ichiraku's or with Tsunade, who usually had food delivered to her office. Well, and an unearthly amount of hospital food, but Sakura didn't exactly count that as eating out.

Anyways, they had just decided on a booth big enough for Akamaru to lie under the table (what the hell did Kiba even feed that dog, anyways) and ordered the first round of meat (copious amounts of it, too, since Naruto and Kiba planned on having an eating contest. How either of them expected to pay for it, Sakura had no idea), when a very shrill scream made them all jump in their seats.

"What the hell are you guys doing here!" Ino screeched through the entire establishment as she made her way over to where they were seated, Shikamaru and Chouji in tow.

"What does it look like, we're going out to eat!" Kiba shouted back, gesturing at their entourage. "What are _you_ doing here?"

"We always go here," Chouji informed them. "It's Asuma-sensei's favorite, and our team hangout. And also the best place to get yakiniku in a thirty mile radius. Hello!" With a friendly wave, he scooted in next to Kiba, while Shikamaru gently pushed an enraged looking Ino out of the way to strategically place himself next to Sasuke. Sasuke was now squirming in his seat and seemed eager to get away, but there was no way out for him just yet.

"And where is Asuma now?" Kiba asked, scrunching up his face as if seriously contemplating something.

"Hell if we know," Shikamaru answered. "He said he had plans."

"Plans, huh?" Kiba echoed. "Yeah, right." Hinata at the end of the booth chuckled.

"Guess that explains Kurenai's absence, then," Shikamaru concluded, and Ino squeed a little.

"I don't get it!" Naruto informed them all, stretching in his seat at the wall to look at the newcomers.

"It's not important," Hinata assured him.

"And what are you guys doing together?" Ino asked over the table, somehow managing to glare daggers at Sakura with two people between them.

"We sort or trained together," Sakura explained in a resigned voice. "And after that, Jiraiya-sama insisted we tag along for some team bonding or something."

"Okay, that settles it, we so want in on your bonding," Ino declared.

"No, we don't", Shikamaru muttered but Ino pretended not to hear him did a complete one-eighty in her demeanor, put on her most pleasant smile and leaned even further over Shikamaru.

"Hi, Sasuke-kun!" She then said in her most vapid voice in a register she usually used to get tips from customers (because tips were totally customary in flower shops, mind you. Ino still managed to get some) and that made Sakura flinch. And Sasuke as well, for that matter.

"Go away," he hissed at her.

"Why are you guys training together, anyways?" Chouji asked, in what Sakura assumed was an attempt to steer the conversation away from the awkward that was Ino on Sasuke. Kudos to him for sounding genuinely interested, too.

"Eh, Kurenai is teaching those two some genjutsu mumbo-jumbo," Kiba explained and nodded at Sakura and Sasuke. "We just tagged along to kick Naruto's ass."

"And instead I kicked yours!" Naruto reminded him, loudly.

"That was mostly Hinata!" Kiba denied, dramatically slapping his hand on the table. "And tomorrow, you're getting your come-uppance!"

"You wish!" Naruto countered, very creatively.

"Why do we never get special lessons with you?" Ino asked.

"Because they have nothing to teach us, and vice-versa," Shikamaru explained, massaging his temples. Sakura could emphasize; the noise level was rather unsettling. "All we do is family techniques, and teaching them to outsiders is kind of a no-go, remember?"

"Dammit," Ino said, pouting. "We still could come around and kick their asses!"

Sakura snorted, while Naruto somehow caught that and screeched over her head: "No way!"

"Way!" Ino insisted. "Like, I could totally take over your mind right now and make you do stupid things!" She hesitated. "I mean, things more stupid than what you're already doing just by existing!"

"Could you kids please keep it down?" A very distressed looking waitress asked them, having just arrived with their food. "There are other patrons here, you know?"

"We'll have what they're having," Chouji ordered, smiling brightly at her.

"They ordered food for eight people," the waitress argued, looking at him in bewilderment.

"You must be new here," Shikamaru sighed. "We'll take _exactly_ what they're having. In the same amount."

"...Okay then," the young woman said, scribbled down the order and went on her way again.

"She has no idea what she's in for," Shikamaru muttered, looking after her.

"Yeah, seriously," Ino agreed. "Then again, we're probably the reason the last few waiters quit."

"Then why don't they just ban you from the restaurant?" Sakura asked. "Seems more efficient than exchanging staff all the time."

"Sure, but have you seen how much we eat?" Ino countered. "We're the best customers here, so they do what they can to keep us."

"And Asuma-sensei has been going here for ages," Chouji added, eyeing the sizzling meat in front of Kiba next to him hungrily. "He and the owner are like old friends."

"It would be like banning Naruto from Ichiraku's, basically," Shikamaru put it all into perspective.

"...Don't even say that," Naruto said from his end of the table, looking crestfallen. "Seriously, _don't even think that_!"

"I got in three pieces already!" Kiba proclaimed. "Just while you said that! Get your head in the game!"

That snapped Naruto back to attention as he shoved several pieces of only half-grilled beef into his mouth, not to be out-shone. Kiba meanwhile had to treat his slightly burned mouth with a whole glass of cold water, which gave him a (very noisy) hiccup and kept him from competing for a minute or two. Once Team 10 also got their orders, the general noise level died down, as they were all busy eating the seriously good food and competing over space on the grills. This went on more or less peacefully for a few minutes, Naruto und Kiba were still competing, after all, so peaceful was kind of a euphemism, until there was the sudden sound of someone clearing their throat directly by their table.

"Do you believe this to be a good idea?" A familiar voice said, straining to sound neutral whilst the owner was actually heavily annoyed. While they had been eating, Team Gai sans Gai had somehow spotted them, and now Neji was standing at their table, looking directly at Hinata with something akin to a glare.

"It's a team event," Hinata answered unperturbed and responded to his glare with a smile. "So yes, it is a good idea, and nothing Otoo-sama would object to."

Neji glanced at their gathering and looked unconvinced.

"Are you certain?" He asked, but whatever Hinata answered was drowned out by someone else making his opinion known.

"Sakura-san!" Lee exclaimed, stepping up to their table and slightly pushing Neji aside. "What a pleasure to meet you here!" He bowed so enthusiastically that he almost hit his head on the table. "And everybody else, too!"

"Yeah, awesome meeting you have here," Tenten said, shoving both of the boys aside. "And what Neji actually meant to say that it really is not a good idea to do this without us."

"That's not -," Neji started to protest, but Tenten just shoved him onto the last piece of bench next to Chouji that was still unoccupied, and then dragged over two chairs for Lee and herself. Neji glared at her in silent indignation, but Tenten simply stuck out her tongue at him, and he rolled his eyes and accepted his fate.

"Yo, Lee, we're having a competition!" Naruto announced across the table, exposing a mouth of half-chewed food to everyone present. "Wanna join?"

"A competition!" Lee echoed excitedly. "Yes, yes, certainly! Will you also join, as my rival?" He then asked Neji, who just looked even more pissed off than previously.

"No," he growled at his teammate, and glared at Tenten again, who just smiled brightly. And a little smugly, too.

"What an unyouthful attitude!" Lee remanded him. "Gai-sensei would be so disappointed! What does this contest entail, anyways?"

"Stuffing you face as quickly as you can," Shikamaru explained. "And not vomit on anyone, if possible."

"I'm not participating!" Chouji informed everyone gleefully while starting on his fourth platter when Naruto and Kiba were just finishing up their second.

"That seems rather wasteful," Lee noted with concern. "But... A competition is a competition after all, and I will not turn down a challenge!" And so he flagged down their poor, poor waitress again and ordered an unhealthy amount of food for himself as well.

"Has anyone here thought about how they're gonna pay for all this stuff?" Tenten asked, eyeing the table which was practically groaning under the weight of their collective orders. "This place doesn't look cheap..."

"Well our stuff usually goes on Asuma's tab," Ino answered. "And like, he abandoned us anyways, so I don't see why today should be any different."

"Okay then," Tenten said and eyed the untouched meat in front of Ino, who was unenthusiastically grilling a few mushrooms. "Are you gonna eat that?"

Ino sighed and shoved the plate towards Tenten.

"No, they made me lose my appetite," she said and nodded at Naruto and Kiba. “I mean, Chouji eats a lot too, but at least he has manners…”

"Awesome," Tenten declared and started preparing Ino's meat for herself. "And you, Haruno, look at lot less like shit than last time. Things improved, I take it?"

"It's kinda hard to bruise from genjutsu," Sakura pointed out. "And I wouldn't annoy me again, who knows when I'll end up being your medic again."

"Walking into the trees might show," Sasuke muttered next to her.

"True," she agreed. "And who came up with that again?"

"Since when do you two talk?" Ino asked, looking from Tenten to Sakura and back suspiciously.

"Oh, we had a heart-to-heart in the hospital after she saved my life and then abandoned me for almost a week," Tenten said nonchalantly. "It was very deep and stuff."

"Very touching," Sakura agreed. "Tears all around."

"Age-old grudges were overcome," Tenten continued, "Kittens rescued from trees."

"Orphans were fed," Sakura added. "And we almost managed world peace, too, but there were other people on my shift. Do you need help? Something to drink?"

The latter questions were addressed at Neji who was suffering from a mean fit of coughing for _some reason_.

"Nah, he's fine," Tenten assured here while hitting Neji on the back. "Just not comfortable with our epic friendship."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Sakura said dryly. "We talked like once, aren't we taking this a little fast? I'm not sure I'm comfortable with that."

"There is no too fast for friendship!" Lee briefly entered into their conversation before eating at high velocity again.

"You heard him," Tenten said, shrugging.

"I'm not sure the two of you hanging out is a good idea," Ino muttered, looking uncomfortable.

"Can I go now?" Sasuke asked next to Sakura. She eyed his plate.

"You didn't eat very much," she pointed out. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm fine," he answered. "And I eat enough."

"Well, you should eat more, especially proteins," Sakura started lecturing. "It will help you gain back the muscle you lost, and get you back to your old strength faster."

"Stop that!" Ino demanded and tried hitting Sakura across the two people between them until Shikamaru restrained her a little. "You got to fuss over him for like a week!"

"I'm his medic," Sakura pointed out in annoyance. "That's my job."

"Yeah, but not right now you aren't!" Ino argued.

"She has a point there," Sasuke muttered under his breath. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"You want her fussing over you instead?" She asked under her breath. "She is a very low-tier medic as well, you know? So that could be arranged..."

She received a glare as answer, during which Sasuke very deliberately ate some vegetables. Sakura smirked.

"Well then," she said, and then bent forwards slightly to address Ino directly. "And you're right, I'm not on duty and he's not my patient right now, and I'm trying to keep it that way. If you think you can do that without even knowing or being allowed to know what his issues are, be my guest. He's a rather unthankful patient, anyways."

"Even worse than me?" Tenten asked, faking consternation. "For shame!"

"Okay, stop it, it's scary," Ino demanded. "Stop getting along!"

"DONE!" Naruto yelled over the table, followed by a loud burp.

"No fair!" Kiba yelled back, mouth still full. "I had to feed Akamaru on the side!"

"Ha! So he helped you!" Naruto claimed, pointing an accusatory finger at him. "Admit it, you cheated!"

"You had a head start!" Lee protested from the other end of the table. "We should take time to measure between us all fairly!"

"Can I go _now_?" Sasuke growled again. "They're giving me a headache, and that's probably detrimental to my recovery, isn't it?"

"Fine," Sakura sighed and stood up, as did Shikamaru and Ino next to her, so Sasuke could get out of the overcrowded booth. "See you at training."

"You still need to pay for your food," Tenten noted. "Or is Asuma going to cover that, too?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, took out his wallet and put a few bills on the table before leaving without saying another word. While everyone else got back to their seats, Tenten began counting the money and whistled through her teeth in appreciation.

"Well, looks like he just left enough money to pay for all this food and then some," she explained while counting through the bills again. "Damn, it's good to be stinking rich, I guess."

"That was probably an accident," Neji next to her scoffed. "Though I share his sentiment of just _getting out of here_." He glared down the table to where Hinata was softly trying to calm Naruto down.

"Hinata can find her own way home," Shino assured him.

"That's not the issue," Neji replied. "She's not supposed to find her own way home, that's why I get sent after her so often."

"Is this about _you_ getting her home, or her not being out alone at this time?" Shino asked. "If the latter, Kiba and I will be happy to do your job for you if staying here aggravates you so."

Neji pondered over this for a minute, before Tenten elbowed him in the side.

"Come on, he has a point there," she said. "And also, grumpy as you are you'll just kill the fun for everyone here."

"I'm not grumpy," Neji protested in a very grumpy fashion. "But I do see your point."

"Well then," Tenten said, smiling brightly and dragging Neji to his feet. "Have fun, Lee, I gotta go help babysit my cousins. Bye everyone!"

Lee jumped to his feet, swallowing a mouth of food way too quickly, so he choked when trying to bow while saying goodbye. Chouji, who had already finished about twice as much as Naruto and Kiba had eaten but wasn't participating gave him a good-natured pat on the back that almost made Lee knock over the table, causing giggles all around, unless you were too stoic to giggle or too busy arguing over rules or whatever the yelling right now was about, Sakura couldn't quite tell anymore. A quick glance at the clock however told her it was almost ten pm, so if she didn't get home sooner rather than later, her mom would get worried. And more worried was not something she wanted her mom to be right now.

"I gotta go too," she announced and got up as well. "Before my mom scales the walls or something."

She tried sounding light-hearted, but she hadn't taken Ino into account, who she had to pass to exit the booth herself. Ino bit her lip for a second, then glanced around if anyone was watching, before giving her a quick hug and a pat on the back. Sakura was so surprised by this she just gaped at her sort-of friend for a few seconds, before Ino turned around and asked very loudly: "So if Sasuke-kun paid for my food, does that count as a date?"

Sakura just shook her head and left, chuckling to herself a little. Baby boars didn't lose their stripes overnight, either, so a little progress was probably better than nothing.

"Well, by that rule he's dating the rest of us, too, in some gigantic and occasionally incestuous pile of an orgy," she heard Shikamaru point out before she left the restaurant. People were weird today.


	12. Famous Last Words

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After more genjutsu training, the plot finally starts to progress. In completely expected ways.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sorry for the long hiatus! The regular schedule is back up again now, so check the next chapter will be out two weeks from now. I briefly contemplated posting something on the day we became canon or whatever it is officially called now, something I never would have imagined when starting this thing almost eight years ago. In any case, yay! Now enjoy a chapter that is only half-way shenanigans and where you actually get to taste the plot starting in two weeks! Whee!

**12\. Famous Last Words**

On the next morning, Sakura was the first to arrive at the training grounds. Mostly because she had overslept and then faked being in a hurry so her mom couldn't chide her because of it. So now she was sitting on the grass and reading a copy of an autopsy report Shizune recently wrote. Some ANBU member had been an a solo mission and was ambushed by unidentified enemy shinobi who seemed to have uncanny abilities with water manipulation, but Kiri, who they had some sort of ancient treaty with nobody was happy about, denied any and all involvement, in an official statement that had been attached to the report. The ambush had happened west of Konoha anyways, so they pointed towards Taki, who had been involved in the destruction of Oto, had once upon a time defected from Kiri and stolen all their fun water attacks, and also the two villages had had a bit of a feud going on between them ever since. The autopsy report described in loving detail how the victim had been drowned on dry land and then cut into several pieces. While Sakura was certainly no expert on international killing tactics and the fine difference between Taki and Kiri warfare, this did indeed sound sick enough to come from someone who was raised in a village that locked academy students in one room and only let the last one left alive graduate. After casually killing everyone who was born with kekkei genkai, of course.

That made her pause for a second. True, this was more a political thriller than an autopsy report, but maybe she should reconsider her sources on Kiri people and their practices for just a second. All she had to go on were her academy books, which had turned out to exaggerate just a little bit when it came to other villages (like, for instance, people from Suna apparently did not eat babies), and Haku and Zabuza, who had both been personally involved back when all the really bad stuff happened and not set foot in the village ever since. Sure, diplomatic approaches towards any other shinobi village _but_ Suna were close to nonexistent, but maybe getting some solid and current information from reliable sources... Oh, who was she kidding. Whoever wrote that report didn't seem interested in showing anyone what Kiri was like now, and also didn't sound like a nice person in general. In fact, their writing was _so_ infuriating, Sakura had just spent time on thinking about all of this instead of actually reading on. And she was usually really interested in autopsy reports and evaluations.

"Morning, Sakura-chan!" Naruto yelled across the clearing, though when she looked up to return the greeting, he didn't quite look as dynamic as usual. In fact, he seemed a little pale and like he hadn't slept too well. Also, Hinata was with him for some reason.

"Good morning, you two," Sakura returned the greeting, a little confused. "Are you okay? You look a little... Sick."

Naruto started laughing rambunctiously, but she could tell it wasn't all that sincere. Hinata could, too, apparently, since she only smiled a little at him while looking worried herself.

"Well, that's like, the most accurate way to put this," Naruto finally explained when he noticed nobody was laughing along. "Like, turns out eating way too much in like thirty minutes is not a good idea." He glanced at Hinata for a suspicious split-second. "I mean, I still won, but Kiba somehow managed to keep more of it in, so we sort of had to declare it a draw?"

"...Okay?" Sakura was a little confused and highly intrigued by what Naruto was sort of hinting at.

"Yeah, so, I had, uh, a little trouble getting home?" He continued his adventurous tale. "So Hinata-chan, and Shino and Kiba of course, though he was kind of riding on Akamaru all the time since he had trouble walking too, hah, they took me home, and uh..." He laughed again and scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.

"You threw up all over someone?" Sakura guessed, carefully watching both their reactions for some reason.

"Not all over!" Naruto protested. "I didn't hit anyone!"

"Good for them," Sakura snorted.

"In any case, Hinata-chan was like, amazing, and even showed up at my place this morning to check on me," Naruto continued, affectionately bumping his shoulder against Hinata's, who was still standing next to him and contemplating her shoes intently.

"It was nothing," she said quietly and waved off his praises.

"But you got me that tea that made me feel all better and everything!" Naruto argued. "I mean, that was so awesome, nobody ever just..." He caught himself there and cleared his throat, now clearly embarrassed himself. Sakura stared at that shipwreck of interaction in front of her for a few seconds longer, before deciding that maybe, focusing on her autopsy report and giving them some sort of privacy might be not so bad for the time being. So she also very intently did not listen to the quiet words Hinata muttered after a few moments of awkward silence between all of them, or whatever Naruto said after. Nope. None of her business.

Luckily, shortly after she had tried to refocus on the report (and was starting to seriously contemplate whether whoever wrote it actively _wanted_ to offend the people reading it), the other people of their little training group started pouring in. Kiba only looked slightly better than Naruto did, and yet that didn't keep either of them from yelling at each other relentlessly. Shino arrived at some point, too, but wasn't noticed in the general excitement. And Sakura was just contemplating whether she should suggest a small group sparring round including herself, since she had nothing better to do than get angry at faceless people in Kiri who wrote autopsy reports, when a sudden coldness engulfed her and made her vision blur for a split second.

_You. Forest. Now,_ a very disgruntled sounding Sasuke said in her head. Dramatic much?

She rolled her eyes, broke the illusion, put her offensive piece of medical information away and got up.

"It seems like I have been summoned to more special training," she announced to the other four. "Why don't you guys just start sparring? Jiraiya-sama should show up anytime now and that's basically what you guys are here for anyways. And it might actually be easier on everyone in a five mile perimeter as far as the noise level is concerned," she added with a tired sigh. Mostly the yelling would disturb her focus in the exercises to come, while Sasuke probably knew some nifty little jutsu to block out sounds that he would not share with her... Ugh.

 

The scene she saw when she found Sasuke and Kurenai on the clearing was a lot less ugh than she had expected, though. Sasuke was lying on the floor, panting, as if he had just participated in one of Gai and Lee's regular fifty laps around Konoha running backwards on their hands. Kurenai was standing, arms crossed, face neutral. Then she spotted Sakura and nodded at her.

"It seems your attempt at long-distance casting was successful, at least," she pointed out to Sasuke, who just glared first at Kurenai and then at Sakura, who smiled and waved in response.

"Why did you start without me?" She then asked. "I thought this was supposed to be the equal amount of training for both of us."

"He insisted," Kurenai explained. "And don't worry, if anything, it puts him at a disadvantage." She unfolded her arms and gestured for Sakura to come closer. "In any case, due to special... Orders, I suppose, I have to rearrange my curriculum for the two of you on very short notice."

"Okay?" Sakura asked, with Sasuke being too exhausted to complain or ask himself. "What kind of orders? Why? And you're not gonna cancel these sessions entirely, are you? We just got started!"

"No, not at all," Kurenai assured her. "It's just that... Circumstances have... Arisen that call for me to teach you a different set of skills first. If it was my call, I'd just have you cast offensive genjutsus at each other for the time being and slowly move on to the more advanced stuff, but my higher-ups demanded I now teach you how to break out of especially potent illusions, for... Well, I can't really say a bad reason, it is a very prudent reason actually, but... Well."

"You're not happy about it," Sakura concluded. "What's going on?"

"You'll find out soon enough," Kurenai assured her. "If things go badly, that is. With any luck, this particular session will be unnecessary for quite some more time, but it is better to be safe than sorry, don't you agree?"

"If you put it that way, sure," Sakura said. "I'd just like to get the whole picture before forming an opinion, is all."

"Not my story to tell or information to pass along," Kurenai brushed her off. "I'm sorry, but I'm really not allowed to."

"Typical," Sasuke scoffed, having caught his breath somewhat. "So are you going to teach us now or what?"

"Attitude," Kurenai chided him. "But yes. Try to break out of this; good luck."

 

The first practical lesson Sakura got from her thus was that once you were actually _good_ at genjutsu, you didn't need to give a damn about not alerting your target that they were in one. She used to be proud to have been able to break out of Kabuto's genjutsu during the chuunin exams, which had knocked out so many ninjas far better than her, but she now realized that Kabuto hadn't even been that good, and it had only worked so well because he had caught everyone by surprise. Getting the whole force or Kurenai set on you, while being fully aware of it every second due to the _announcement_ and the fact that the world suddenly consisted of a weird black room with trees in it that luckily did nothing to them yet, and being completely unable to do _anything_ against it, well, that was quite different. And it sucked, big time. Sakura tried releasing the genjutsu a few times over, pouring most of her chakra into it, and nothing happened at all. The only thing that mildly cheered her up was that Sasuke was in the strange room with her and didn't have any better luck than her. If anything, he just exhausted himself more and more the more often he tried. And he did try way more often than her, super powered eyes activated and everything.

_The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome_ , she suddenly remembered having read somewhere, but wisely decided to keep that to herself for the time being.

"Sasuke, stop it," she instead said.

"We're supposed to break out," Sasuke argued. "That's what I'm trying. Leave me alone."

"Well you're not succeeding," she pointed out. "Neither am I. Exhausting ourselves over this won't help anyone."

"What, do you have a plan or something?" He asked, crossing his arms and glaring at her. Sakura considered this for a minute.

This was a very unaggressive genjutsu that most likely affected the area around them, since they were both trapped, and syncing up the illusions for both of them would probably drain way too much chakra... Or would it?

"Sasuke, are you real?" She asked curiously. Wouldn't yield any result to work with, but it helped her think. Sasuke looked at her for a moment as if she had lost all sense (like _who is insane now, huh_?), but then understanding dawned on his face.

"I think so," he answered less volatile than she had expected. He looked at her with scrutiny. "And you are, too. So we are both... Here."

"Right, your eyes can see through stuff," Sakura remembered. "Do you see anything else that can help us?"

"I see the illusion," Sasuke said. "And I can see her standing there, keeping the illusion up and watching us. That doesn't help, though."

"Any holes? Inconsistencies? Weak spots we could exploit?" Sakura continued her interrogation. The more they knew about this, the better. There was obviously some trick to this kind of genjutsu, or Kurenai wouldn't have used it on them in this context.

"Nothing," Sasuke answered. "Everything's solid. It's a simple one, too. The only thing keeping me from breaking out is how strong it is." He kicked a pebble on the ground away from him in frustration. Whether that one had been real or not or whatever Sakura couldn't tell. "I can see _everything_ and know what to do, but every time I push against it, it pushes back and crushes what I try to do!" He kept complaining. "She did the same thing to me before you came, how the _fuck_ are we supposed to figure this out?"

"Talking about it and comparing notes is a good start, I think," Sakura said, trying to sound soothing, which was harder than she would have liked since she was about as frustrated as he was, just less violent in dealing with it. "We obviously can't break this one with sheer force, so there's got to be some trick to it, and together we'll be quicker at figuring it out."

"If you say so," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes at her. "Would you like to hold hands and sing a happy song about friendship, while we're at it? No wait, don't answer that."

Sakura was caught a little bit aback with that. Did he just make a _joke_?

"You _really_ are weird lately," she muttered, looking at him with concern. "Are you feeling okay? Maybe a new fever? A relapse on the drug withdrawal? Eat anything funny?"

"What?" Sasuke asked annoyed.

"Well, I'm just saying," she just said with bemusement. "Between making actual jokes that are almost funny, and paying for everyone's dinner, you're becoming somewhat of a socially competent human being lately. Did the detoxication also have psychological effects or what's going on here?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Sasuke growled. "And also, what was that about comparing notes and getting out of here faster? If we draw this out for much longer, the trees are going to attack. I've been there."

"Alright," Sakura agreed to put this back on track. "Okay. Thinking our way out of this box. You're sure there are no weak points?"

"Positive."

"It doesn't get any weaker towards the bottom or while forming a dome above us or anything?"

"Sakura, this is a fucking illusion and not a barrier jutsu," Sasuke reminded her. "There's no dome, no bottom, and _no fucking weak point_. It's in our heads."

"Yeah, sure, but this is an area based genjutsu, right?" Sakura tried to make her point. "So the area has got to _end_ somewhere, doesn't it? Above us, around us, dig a tunnel through it... Or we could just walk out of reach."

"Don't try that," Sasuke cautioned her with a groan. "That's what I did before you got here. There is a limit to the area, but you can't break through it, and trying to walk out hurts like hell."

"Oh," Sakura said, the wind knocked right out of her. "Okay then. Talk about you not having an advantage over me because of the little extra training before."

"Technically, you have the advantage," Sasuke pointed out. "Since you profit from my knowledge. Otherwise, you'd walk right into it."

"Yes, warning me is surprisingly decent of you," Sakura mused with a smile. "Which brings me back to my previous point..."

"Just stop it," Sasuke growled. "Focus on getting out of here."

"I would," Sakura sighed and sat down on the floor. "But for now, we are stuck. And talking about unrelated things usually gets me unstuck... Oh..."

"What?" Sasuke snapped when she suddenly drifted off. "Any ideas?"

"Well..." Sakura said hesitantly, biting her lips. "Well, _we_ are stuck in here, right? Both of us?"

"Are you suffering from dementia now? We've been over this!" Sasuke reminded her in exasperation.

"Yes, yes, we're both as real as we can be while in an illusion, I remember that." She assured him, waving impatiently. "But the point is that she was going to teach us how to break out of a very potent genjutsu, right?"

"Yes," Sasuke hissed impatiently. "What are you getting at?"

"We're in here together," Sakura repeated. "So it seems like we're not supposed to break out, like, individually, you know?"

"We're supposed to figure it out together," Sasuke said. "We've been there, yes."

"No, I think we're supposed to _break_ out together," Sakura said, chewing on her bottom lip again. This part made perfect sense in her head, but was a little bit on the too mushy for real life side of things. "I mean, we've gone through all the tricky stuff, right? No weak points, no exploits, no tricks, nothing. So all that remains is force."

"But we don't have the force to break out of this the conventional way," Sasuke argued. "At least not... Individually... _Fuck no_."

"Fuck yes, unless you have a better idea," Sakura confirmed, jumping to her feet and walking over to where he was standing and desperately trying to think of a less mushy course of action. "If not, I would indeed like to hold hands. The happy song about friendship is completely optional, though, but feel free to go right ahead." She held her hands out to him. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Is this really necessary?" He asked, but took her hands regardless.

"Well, we somehow need to connect what reserves we have to break out of this thing," Sakura reminded him. "I get the feeling some touching will be required to do that. And even if not, it can't hurt and will probably make things easier."

"Whatever," Sasuke muttered. "Close your eyes and focus on your chakra."

Sakura did as she was asked, and while she gathered what little reserves she had, she felt power radiating off of Sasuke. Not just his hands, but his entire body. It was almost inconceivable that he hadn't been able to break out of this on his own regarding just how much chakra he possessed. Then, just when she had felt the chakra combining somewhat, Sasuke let go of one of her hands and made the release sign. A headache exploded in her skull when she felt their combined power being channeled into all directions, and yet being repelled by barriers or whatever it was. There was no way walking against the edges of the illusion would have hurt less. She clutched her head between he hands, hoping it would go away.

"So this was not how it works," Sasuke concluded, voice a little strained, but not visibly worse for wear. "Also, how do you _function_ with this little chakra?"

"I use it efficiently," Sakura managed to gasp in pain. "How do _you_ function with so little focus?"

"What do you mean?" He asked defensively.

"You just used it all against no specific target!" Sakura explained, her headache subsiding a little. "That's no way to break out of a genjutsu! You need to focus it on the affected part of your perception!"

"Says the person who was asking for weak points about a minute ago!" Sasuke argued. "And this has always worked before."

"No, no, you need to keep it focused on your head, since that's where the illusion is," Sakura continued. "I was asking for weak points so we could focus our chakra on where we _perceive_ the specific area where the illusion is weaker."

"So you do it," Sasuke muttered and held out his hands again. "If you think you can do so much better. Can you even handle any more chakra?"

"I need a minute to regenerate first," Sakura informed him and massaged her temples, before flexing her fingers and taking a few deep breaths. She was starting to feel the energy in her body again; a little weaker than before, but it was quite obvious to her that Sasuke's problem had never been lack of chakra to break out of this himself, but his lack of focus. It was a little odd that they were being confronted with a genjutsu that did require nothing but well focused force to break out, considering how genjutsu was usually less straight-forward and more complex than this, but well, they had their hands full enough as it were.

In any case, she was ready for another round again. She extended her hands towards Sasuke, who now took them without complaining, though she could tell he didn't expect this to work regardless. No matter. Sakura focused on where their hands touched, and tentatively let her chakra flow towards him. She was greeted by what was practically a tsunami of pure power and had to fight the instinct to retreat from this overwhelming force. No, no, this was good chakra. This was all for her. She focused on pulling as much of Sasuke's chakra into her control as she could. Usually this was only possible with very nasty specialized jutsus, but if the original owner of the chakra actively participated, it was relatively easy. When she had about as much as she could stand under her control, all her nerve ends felt like they were on fire. She'd never had this much pure chakra power in her life, and if this went on for much longer, she might just go mad. But that was not going to happen. Sakura finally focused on the illusion itself; the pressure it was putting on her brain, her perception of things, where her consciousness was trapped by invisible walls. And then, without even bothering to form a hand sign, she expelled all the chakra she was commanding in one gigantic burst.

The world around her shattered, her vision blurred and she dropped to the ground, seeing funny patterns for a little while. When she came to again, she was halfway lying on the forest floor, the _real_ forest floor that is, being propped up by Sasuke halfway, while Kurenai was kneeling in front of her and dabbing at her face with a tissue. Focusing her vision a little more, which hurt like hell, Sakura saw that the tissue Kurenai was using was bloody. She apparently had a nosebleed.

More severely, she felt more drained than she ever had; all that chakra passing through her system had exhausted her way more than she could have anticipated. Her body probably just wasn't made to handle so much power. How the hell did Sasuke deal with this on a daily basis? No, forget Sasuke... How did Naruto handle having as much chakra as he had? Reportedly more chakra than any other shinobi in the village, as she had learned from peeking at some top secret report on him that Tsunade had left lying around at one point? How did he not explode from this much energy? It was baffling, to say the least.

"Are you feeling alright?" Kurenai asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

"I... I think so..." Sakura muttered and was slowly pushed into an upright position by Sasuke. Her nosebleed was getting weaker as well, but she was still a little freaked out that the mental pressure had been enough to burst a blood vessel to begin with. She checked her head for remaining injuries with what remaining chakra she had. "I'm sorry, that was... Overwhelming."

"Apparently so," Kurenai agreed. "I'm sorry, I didn't know this would take such a toll on you."

"It's okay," Sakura said. "My chakra system is, uh, a little less developed than most people's. I guess I'm just not made to handle so much energy."

"That can be trained," Kurenai informed her. "If you do things like this more often, it will get easier."

"That's... good to know," Sakura said and attempted to get up. Her head still felt a little blurry and she stumbled a little, but could support herself by leaning on Sasuke again for a bit. "Sorry," she muttered again. Sasuke just did one of his non-committal grunting sounds.

"For what it's worth," Kurenai then went into lecturer mode again. "You did complete your task just the way I intended you to. Though I wouldn't have expected the two of you to take so long to figure out that you should do this with combined chakra; for most teammates, combining powers would have been a first instinct."

"We're still working on the team work part," Sakura explained. "We've not really been a team and done solitary combat for most of the last two years, you know? So, uh, working together isn't really something that comes naturally to us." Clashing personalities, an unhealthy dose of disdain, and fighting styles that didn't go together at all didn't help. Neither did the fact the all the training they had been doing ever since Sakura had been on a level to actively work with the boys was sparring against each other. For all his talk about teamwork and honing skills and whatever, Jiraiya wasn't really doing much to help in any regard, except make them better individual fighters against each other, was he? Maybe she should mention that the next time the old man felt chatty with her...

"Well, do you think you could do this again?" Kurenai asked. "Maybe with a little less force this time? You overdid it a little; with your kind of focus, you really didn't need _that_ much chakra to break out."

"So you mean I could do this on my own if I just focus my chakra right?" Sasuke asked, brows furrowed.

"Precisely," Kurenai said. "You are one of the people who have way more chakra than is good for them, so they never really learn how to control it properly. Now, I know there are exercises that teach you how to control your chakra output, but these also tend to be the only kinds of techniques that actually penalize using too much chakra, so even if you are able to do these perfectly after a while, you only ever learn to restrain yourself in that particular context."

"You mean the tree walking," Sasuke noticed. "So if you're right and I can't control my chakra, how am I performing the chidori, exactly? That requires precision and exact control and all that bullshit."

"Well, yes, but it's also a matter of the more you pour into it, the better the results," Kurenai explained. "And the worst that can happen is that you overload the technique, and considering both the technique's and your own limits, that's... Not very likely to happen. So the question in that case is only how you use what you have and using more than the exact amount needed to achieve the desired result has little to no negative consequences. As you just saw, breaking a genjutsu works in basically the opposite way. Just trying to hit everything around you doesn't work once it's a little more advanced."

"Can I try again?" Sakura asked. "I'll make sure to use less chakra this time, it probably won't be as overwhelming this time around..."

She wasn't even finished yet when she suddenly found herself on some sort of beach. A green one.

 

***

 

When Sasuke and her finally made their way back to the others, after the most exhausting day of training Sakura had ever had since she'd stopped working exclusively under Tsunade, they found themselves on a very peculiar scene. Jiraiya wasn't there. Whether he wasn't there yet or anymore, Sakura couldn't tell. What she could tell was that the fight had been going on for about as long as she and Sasuke had been practicing overloading her chakra system and then breaking out of illusions that got meaner and meaner each time, which had taken several hours. The sun was already setting, case in point. The fighting area was strewn with torn off branches and other parts of the surrounding flora, way past the perimeter they usually used for sparring matches. Incidentally, the trees in the general area also seemed a lot worse for wear. And so did the contenders.

Kiba was busy bandaging up himself and Akamaru, who had both sustained significant injuries somehow and were riddled with leaves and branches all across their bodies. Shino looked mostly okay, if not for the fact that he didn't seem to be able to control half of his body and his cloak seemed to have been torn by fangs in several places. Hinata looked just about as exhausted as Sakura felt, with her hair disheveled and full of twigs, deep shadows under her eyes and slightly shaking hands while she massaged a spot on Naruto's left arm, which he didn't seem to have any control over at the moment. Naruto did look the worst out of them all; clothes torn, lots of scratches and bite marks, and unable to even sit properly since his body was almost completely limp. All of her medic senses kicking in, Sakura felt her headache quadruple on the spot.

"What the hell have you been up to?" She asked, standing frozen on the spot while contemplating whom to help first. Naruto was the most badly wounded, but Hinata was already taking care of him, and Shino probably had his chakra system in the affected areas cut off, so healing him there would be a pain, but Kiba's wounds seemed the least severe since nobody had bitten or scratched him, and Hinata wasn't wounded at all, but the shadows under her eyes hinted at severe internal problems, and...

"I kicked Naruto's ass!" Kiba announced.

"That was mostly Hinata-chan!" Naruto argued, while Hinata gently kept him from even trying to get up with whatever limbs he still had control over in his body. "And also, it was totally unfair! I don't hide!"

"We fought using the environment as cover," Shino explained through the yelling. "The way our team usually does battle, not the kind of show-fighting you usually do."

"You did use the environment, alright," Sakura noted, still unsure where to focus her efforts. "Who am I supposed to heal first?" She then asked, feeling a bit of hysteria coming on when she couldn't figure out the proper order of taking care of them all. Usually, she acted on strict protocol or orders where more than one target was concerned. But four targets at once, and none of them with injuries way more severe than the other's? The gears in her head were spinning overtime, but she still couldn't figure out...

"Well, not Hinata, that's for sure!" Kiba roared with laughter. "The idiot didn't even get a hit in on her!"

"I was caught by surprise!" Naruto defended himself, sounding a little flustered. "And anyways, I still managed to beat _you_!"

"And you're not healing anyone," Sasuke told her with an annoyed tone, holding her at the shoulders just to make sure of the fact she didn't rush into the field. Which she still hadn't attempted since her medic senses were apparently short-circuited.

"But... But..." She tried arguing. "That's my job!"

"You're exhausted and not working," Sasuke pointed out. "You'd do more harm than good, and they seem to have it covered anyway. _Go home_."

"Yeah, seriously!" Naruto told her from where he was lying. "I mean, once Hinata-chan opens my tenni-whatevers again, I'll be totally fine, and the others can find their way to the hospital themselves, whereas _you_ look like you need one hell of a nap!"

"Alright..." Sakura muttered, while being steadily pushed away from the scene by Sasuke. "So... Uh... I'll see you tomorrow?"

"I hope not," Sasuke muttered under his breath so only she could here. "If I have to deal with Naruto's and Inuzuka's yelling _one more day_..."

 

* * *

 

Apparently Sasuke got his wish; on the next morning, instead of being ordered to show up at the usual sparring place, the team was called to the Hokage's office.

"Any idea what this is going to be about?" Naruto asked as they somehow met up in front of the building at the same time. Even Sasuke bothered to show up on time now; maybe he remembered his last talk with Tsunade too well to actively try to piss her off for now. Or he was just as glad for the change of pace as Sakura was. Sure, the genjutsu training was nice, even if it hadn't quite worked out as planned, but she was also eager to get to do something else than training for that or sparring with her teammates. Sure, maybe trying out her new genjutsu skills on Naruto would have a nice effect on her statistics, but, well...

"Kurenai hinted at something yesterday," she answered. "She didn't want to be specific but apparently it has something to do with genjutsus in a way? Being able to break out of one, at least. And also she wasn't pleased with whatever this is about... If it's the same thing she was told, of course."

"Let's just go," Sasuke said sharply and went on ahead. Naruto shrugged and followed him, Sakura rolled her eyes.

They made their way up the staircase to Tsunade's office, all while being regarded with something between suspicion, resentment and pity from the people who Sakura recognized as being responsible for handling Tsunade's most important paper work, some things even Sakura hadn't had much access too. Of course, Tsunade was a little sloppy when it came to handling top secret documents within her office, so she had been able to sneak glances at stuff she wasn't supposed to every now and then, but if anyone had intel, it was these people. Tsunade employed about three times as many carriers of important documents as the Third had, who had relied only on a handful of people he could completely trust, in his estimation. When Sakura had questioned Tsunade on this approach, which on first glance seemed like an obvious breach in security, the more people were privy to these documents the more likely was the chance that one of them would leak something to Konoha's enemies after all, her mentor had told her that that way of thinking was basically bullshit. Very effective, of course, when you had people you could _really_ trust, but in Tsunade's experience, those were a lot harder to come by. So she opted for a different system entirely and employed lots of people who had access to very little information, and never more than one piece of writing regarding the same topic. That way, if anyone wanted to weed out someone who could tell them something on a specific issue, they'd have to do a whole lot of weeding, since nobody had a complete picture except for Tsunade herself. And Shizune, who was one of these very rare people. Sakura was trying to work her way into that status, but you didn't employ genins as secret carriers and important public workers. One day, maybe. If she'd make it to jonin somehow.

"Why are these people staring at us like that?" Naruto whispered to her. "Almost like somebody died or something. Creepy."

That stopped Sakura dead in her steps. Oh, _fuck_.

"Naruto, uh..." She whispered back, looking around frantically and then grabbed Sasuke's arm to keep him from continuing on his way. "Guys, listen, I just... I think I know what this is about..."

"...You mean somebody _actually_ died?" Naruto asked. "Please no..."

"Well, uh..." This was hard to put into words. On one hand, she didn't want to let them walk into what she suspected was going on unprepared. On the other hand, she didn't even want to _think_ about this possibility since that made it possible in a way that _not_ thinking about it didn't. "Okay, so, I had a chat with Jiraiya recently," she finally found the right words to frame this. "And he seemed very... Pessimistic on, well, what has become of Kakashi. He was supposed to be back ages ago and they had no trace of him, and uh... You know, summoning us as his team, and the looks we keep getting, I just thought..."

"No," Naruto said a little louder than was necessary. "No, no, no, that's not it, that _can't_ be it, how can you say something like that?"

"The signs are there!" Sakura defended her conclusion. "I don't like this anymore than you do, but..."

"Shut up and keep moving," Sasuke snapped at both of them. "She's either right or she isn't, only one way to find out." And with that, he marched on down the corridor, a little more force in his steps than before. Naruto gave Sakura another both horrified and accusing look and then ran after him. Sakura just sighed deeply. Yes, how dare she try to prepare them for the worst? How entirely inconsiderate of her. Nevertheless, she swallowed down that sudden wave of resentment and followed her boys. Sasuke was right; only one way to find out.

 

Entering the office, they found not only Tsunade, but also Jiraiya there, who was standing behind her desk and glaring daggers at no one in particular. Tsunade herself had her hands folded and her chin resting on them, a grave expression on her face. Shizune was curiously absent. The two of them were incredibly tense and stiff, Sakura could tell. Tsunade _never_ sat that straight in her chair unless something really serious had happened, and even Jiraiya, who was usually leaning onto things and seemed like nothing in the world could seriously trouble him, was standing up straight, by the window yes, but not leaning against it, and rigid like he had a stick up his rear. Also, the way he and Tsunade kept silently and gloomily glaring at each other was... Foreboding. so foreboding in fact that even Naruto picked up on it.

"Oh no, please tell me Sakura was wrong," he said almost immediately after stepping into the office and its gloomy atmosphere. "Kakashi-sensei isn't dead, is he?"

Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanged another glare.

"We don't know," Tsunade then said. "But that is why you're here."

"I can't believe you actually want to go through with this," Jiraiya said from his place in the background.

"I can't believe I've allowed you to stay in the room for this conversation," Tsunade replied without looking at him.

"It's my team, too," he argued. "I should have a say in this!"

"You do," Tsunade snapped back. "I've just elected to overrule you. I can do that, remember? I'm running this place. And you're to blame for that little bit of irony, _remember_?"

"You can't do this!" Jiraiya continued. "At least let me go with them! We have no idea who's out there!"

"We do," Tsunade claimed. "And that's exactly why you can’t' come with them, to keep who's out there too occupied to take notice of them."

"Too risky," Jiraiya said, shaking his head. "They're not up for this yet, we didn't have any time to..."

"Well, you trained them yourself," Tsunade reminded him. "Have a little faith. Nobody ever amounted to anything by playing it safe. These brats faced down S-Rank nuke nins on their first genin mission with little to no formal training, I'm pretty damn sure they can handle this."

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?" Naruto interrupted them before this argument could get any more out of hand. While she was getting tired of all the yelling, Sakura had to appreciate the effort. This bickering was getting them nowhere and they still had no clear answer on Kakashi.

"She's throwing you out to the wolves, that's what's going on!" Jiraiya answered.

"Dramatic much?" Tsunade retorted. "Throwing people out to the wolves means shoving them onto actual battlefields at age five and then promoting whoever's still alive to chuunin afterwards. Last time I checked, this is just a little retrieval mission and nothing more."

"And just what are we supposed to retrieve, his body?" Sasuke asked.

"Well, yes," Tsunade answered, glaring at him. "That would be ideal. Alive and intact, if possible. That'd be the best case scenario. But at the very least, try to get his Sharingan from his potential corpse. I don't think I need to tell you how disastrous that falling into the wrong hands could end up being, do I?"

That caught Sasuke aback for the time being.

"Can we maybe do this slowly, chronologically and with less fighting?" Sakura asked as she couldn't quite get the entire picture together. "So we're, what, getting sent on a potentially very dangerous mission to retrieve Kakashi's corpse before the enemy can get at it? What enemy, even? The only faction that had any interest in the Sharingan recently was Orochimaru, and, well..."

"Yes, his head is still decorating this very building," Tsunade finished her summation. "I put a preservation jutsu on him, too. Cheers me up when coming to work every morning."

"He's not dead," Sasuke injected under his breath.

"Well he's not alive for the time being, nor one of our primary concerns," Tsunade waved this off. "No signs of him, his head is still intact, and your cursed seal has been behaving ever since your drug withdrawal torture ended, hasn't it?"

Sasuke didn't respond again.

"So why do you think Kakashi-sensei could be dead?" Naruto asked. "He kicks ass all the time, he wouldn't die so easily!"

"He was on a mission to scout out something of great importance," Tsunade explained. "A very dangerous job, and we have lost all communication with him. Our scouts in the area weren't able to help. It's been over a week since we last heard of him, and he was supposed to be back two weeks ago, so something must have happened, and you guys will be tasked with finding out what it was and bring him home. Or whatever remains of him."

"Just us?" Sakura asked suspiciously. "We're not exactly known for our tracking ability."

"Seriously," Naruto added. "If we need to find Kakashi-sensei, we should totally take Hinata-chan and her team along, they're awesome at this stuff!"

Tsunade and Jiraiya shared another glare with a hint of discomfort in it.

"Well..." Tsunade then said, clearing her throat. "The area where Kakashi was lost in is small enough that the three of you can cover it, and it's not so much about your tracking skills as, well..."

"It's a highly dangerous area where Kakashi was tracking highly dangerous people and there's been reports of giant mobs of other dangerous people running rampant in it since Oto was, uh, disbanded," Jiraiya explained in her stead. "She's sending you guys because it's less about tracking and more about surviving just being there and you guys are better at that than Team 8."

"Hey, they can totally kick ass, too!" Naruto argued. "Well, mine, anyways..."

"Only because you didn't hit Hinata back," Sasuke reminded him pointedly.

"She caught me by surprise!" Naruto argued.

"Uh, guys?" Sakura interjected. Was she the only one around who remembered what was going on? "We have kind of a serious situation here. Kakashi-sensei might be dead and we're being sent to, what, a civil war zone?"

"So much for not shoving unprepared children onto a battlefield and promoting whoever comes out alive," Jiraiya said with a smirk. Tsunade glared at him again.

"It's not really a battle field or a war zone," she clarified. "Just... An area with a high rate of random casualties. And if you guys are random casualty material, nobody in this room or outside of it as a decorational ornament has done their job right. Personally, I believe I did mine, so quit pretending I'm sending you on a suicide mission already."

"Where do we need to go anyways?" Naruto asked, now finally focusing on the mission again. "And why is it so bad there?"

"North-west from here," Jiraiya answered. "Around the territorial border we have with Iwa. The area has never exactly been stable since we were at war with Iwa and that was our battlefield, and the presence of many smaller shinobi villages isn't really helping." He glared at Tsunade again. "Especially not since they're all currently pissed at us for attacking Oto, which to them didn't look like we had one hell of a score to settle, but more like we, as a big fish, were starting to root out the little fish, aka the little villages, because we can't stand their economic competition or whatever."

"Which is something Kiri has been trying to push since forever, but of course we would be the ones to actually start doing that," Tsunade added and rolled her eyes. "And then we'd pick Oto as a target, because everybody knows Orochimaru was a wimp nobody had to take seriously and, you know, splitting up the village's force to hit all of his hide-outs just to get the job done was totally something you do before launching a serious military campaign against all the smaller villages."

"Also not helping is the fact that we may or may not have caused major damage to that particular area during the war," Jiraiya continued. "Blowing up bridges, burning down crops and smaller settlements... Just war stuff. So yeah. You better not wear your forehead protectors while going there, just a head's up."

"Okay, when you put it like that, it really does sound like a suicide mission," Sakura noted. "Does it get a rank?"

"S," Tsunade answered immediately. "Of significant importance to the village, regardless of actual difficulty, but yes, that factors in there as well. You'll even get it added into your official file and also appropriate compensation. Which, if I recall correctly, would be three monthly rents for your house, and about a year of rent for Naruto's apartment."

"Yay, economic blackmail," Jiraiya commented on this. "Way to show them how not desperate we are."

"I'm running a goddamn business and not a charity!" Tsunade reminded him sharply. "No, actually, compared to how things are handled elsewhere, I'm running both. This is a ninja village, for heaven's sake, where we educate some of the best killers on the continent, but god forbid we ever have them do something dangerous!"

"They're not ready!" Jiraiya retorted. "I'm not against any of that, but there's sending people to do something dangerous and there's sending people to their untimely demise!"

"Okay, stop arguing, this sucks," Naruto interrupted them. "We're doing this, we're getting Kakashi-sensei back here alive, and you'll just see how not ready we are, am I right guys?"

"Yeah," Sasuke agreed first to everyone's general surprise. "If you think we're not ready for something this basic, you haven't been holding up your end of our deal."

"The deal was you do what we tell you to and in return you don't get imprisoned for your trouble," Tsunade reminded him. "And maybe get the opportunity to kill your brother along the way, if that ever conveniently..."

"Don't," Jiraiya hissed.

"But that isn't happening any time soon and not putting you to good use until then would be a waste of human resources," Tsunade finished her sentence, rolling her eyes. "Happy now?" She asked Jiraiya, before turning around to Sasuke again. "But thanks for agreeing with me regardless."

"You're with us, Sakura-chan, right?" Naruto then addressed her unexpectantly.

Truth be told, Sakura didn't quite trust the information they were being given. Sure, the circumstances Tsunade and Jiraiya just told them about did seem less than ideal, and whatever was able to delay Kakashi would be seriously bad news to begin with, but... There was something more to it, she could tell. Otherwise, Jiraiya wouldn't throw such a fit. And wouldn't have instructed Kurenai to teach them the genjutsu breaking stuff. And speaking of Kurenai, she also seemed to share his views on this mission... But whatever it was they were being sent into, she couldn't just not go. The economic blackmail was mean, but part of it. Earning that kind of money would relieve her mom of so much for the months to come. And there was also the fact that now, regardless of whether they'd officially get the mission or not, Naruto most definitely would go and goad Sasuke to come along just for the hell of it. What was it Jiraiya had said? The two of them would get just about everything done and barely make it in time because of all their bickering, but it would work out well because of Naruto's super luck. She herself would just significantly speed up the process by being something of a glorified calming agent for them. Speeding things up was always a good idea if one had to go into hostile territory in her books. And also, she was a goddamn medic. Having her along raised success rates by about 30% and kept casualties, be they random or otherwise, to an absolute minimum. And she couldn't just let her boys run off into danger like that. Also, there was the matter of Kakashi. If he was actually still alive, chances were he'd be wounded, so this was another point where having a medic along was just essential. And this was a team issue. A personal one. So yeah. There was no way she wouldn't go either.

"Of course," she answered, and nodded firmly. Tsunade smirked.

"Well, and now try talking them out of this again," she said to Jiraiya, leaning back in her chair.

"You are a horrible person," he replied.

"And you put me in charge of all of this, being fully aware of the fact," she reminded him again. "So who's the actual horrible person here?"

"Still you," Jiraiya said unimpressed.

"Who was Kakashi tracking down?" Sasuke asked before the bickering could evolve into flirting which Sakura had the suspicion it would any second now and ew.

"That, my dear Uchiha, is none of your business," Tsunade said, turning serious again. "No, really. And literally. Since we know the general area where Kakashi is and if he's still alive, the people he was tracking are not around, it is not relevant to your mission. And these particular people are also not of any consequence to you, so don't worry your pretty little head about it, alright?"

Tsunade was deflecting. It was so plainly obvious, it made Sakura's fingers itch under the nails. If she hadn't thought something fishy was up before, she was sure of that beyond a reasonable doubt by now.

Meanwhile, Tsunade was pulling a box from under her desk and presented its content to them.

"Here you have funds for your mission, a map where the area you need to search is marked on, together with ninja friendly inns that will accommodate you, further details, and of course, some foreign forehead protectors as disguise and neat little cover stories of great detail should you be interviewed about your identity in a setting where fighting is not in your best interest," she explained and spread all these things on her desk. Among them were three forehead protectors from Takigakure, of all places.

"...Where did you get those?" Sakura asked warily, a few alarm signals going off in her head. Tsunade smirked again.

"They fell into our possession due to a lucky coincidence," she explained. "Try not to drown on dry land anytime soon, will you?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Foreshadowing is me. Also, this chapter officially introduces the trend of true love starting with vomit. Vomit is a very recurring theme in this fanfiction for some reason, and I promise it will not be because of pregnancy. Ever. I managed to write a little more than 6 chapters this NaNo, so we have content until March I think. And things will finally happen in the next chapter. Yes, I've been saying that for about three chapters now, but this time I mean it!


	13. Walking Disaster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While searching for Kakashi, everyone gets on everyone's nerves, tempers flare and things are fishy.

**13\. Walking Disaster**

There was absolutely no way to subtly hide your hair without looking like you were trying too hard to hide your hair or about to kill everyone around you. Hoods made you look like a serial killer; masks made you look like you were deranged, and hats were silly or impractical. So while going undercover, Sakura had opted for just _not_ hiding her hair after trying out all of these things and being shot down by her teammates. Instead, she now wore a pretty white ribbon in her hair and a flowy, white sundress with light-pink flowers on it as her disguise. Really, the person with the pink hair being the most suited for gathering information in little towns and villages was highly ironic, but had proven to be the most effective approach whenever they were in mostly civilian settlements. Naruto continued being as subtle as a wrecking ball to the face and Sasuke drew too much attention by being too pretty and didn't have the patience to exploit this for their advantage. So Sakura was the one who got the food and talked to the townspeople, since while she couldn’t exactly blend in with everything, she could still attempt to look like a vapid, unthreatening, pretty little girl, a tactic she had learned from Ino. The high pitched giggles, the eager to please attitude, the unpractical shoes - it all made her itch horribly on the inside, but whatever. And she always had to cover her arms, too, since having defined muscles where people could see them kind of defeated the purpose of looking unthreatening to civilians. This was truly one of the few instances where her twelve year old self would have had an easier time.

Nevertheless, she was still effective enough to figure out which parts of the area were to be avoided, and where the bigger fights were happening, and what other settlement to get to for a little bit of comfort. And in any case, the whole disguising thing would be over after they left this particular little town they had spent all of two days in. They were almost exactly on the border to Kusa territory, and just across a little forest of giant mushrooms, the unsettled part of their journey would begin. So unsettled, in fact, that a major turf war had apparently happened between two big groups of rogue ninjas just outside of this settlement, that refused to get involved with _anything_ , ever.

It got them some peace and quiet, if nothing else.

She opened the creaking door of the inn they were staying at and gave the innkeeper a dazzling smile. This particular establishment was run by an elderly couple switching between reception and service duties. Right now, the wife was handling the reception and reciprocated her smile while Sakura made her way through the large common room that functioned as a bar at night, and towards the stairs that led to their room. If the innkeepers thought it strange that a girl dressed like her shared a room with two boys, they kept quiet about it. Innkeepers in the land of fire were used to getting a lot of business from ninjas after all, and could probably tell what Sakura was, but were also discreet enough to make her believe they didn't see right through everything. This inn had a recommendation from Konoha for excellent service and confidentiality, after all.

She hurried through the corridor leading to their room as quietly as she could while in impractical shoes. They all shared a room with a double bed on the backside of the house, so they could get in and out through the window unseen if they had to. She reached the door and did a slow pattern of knocks; Naruto was on duty and anything too complicated just tended to make him nervous and trigger happy. There was a reason Sasuke had been able to tell it was an imposter Naruto during the chuunin exams back in the day just because he could recall the entire code phrase, after all. After some not so subtle noises inside the room, the key was turned in the lock, the door opened a crack and Naruto peeked out suspiciously.

"Who goes there?" He asked, all serious business voice, but fighting down a grin upon spotting her, as he always did when she came back from getting food and information.

"She did the fucking knocking signal, moron," Sasuke called from inside the room. "Let her in."

"Oh, come on!" Naruto complained. "Her face is so funny when I do this, you'd get it if saw for yourself."

Sakura just rolled her eyes and shoved Naruto out of the way.

"Keep annoying me and you won't get any food," she threatened as she sat down on the bed in the middle of the room. "And this is the last time we're gonna get food without working for it or relying on soldier pills, so think about it really hard, got it?"

"Aaw, why do you always have to be so mean?!" Naruto whined. "You can't look this pretty and be mean, it doesn't fit!"

In response, Sakura threw one of the delicate sandals at him which she had just pried off her feet. Naruto laughed louder than was advisable during an undercover mission and dodged.

"Oh, come on, I mean it!" He then assured her. "You should wear stuff like this more often, it suits you!"

While continuously glaring at him, Sakura shrugged off the equally delicate bolero jacket she had to wear over the dress, exposing her too-wide-for-this-look shoulders which were emphasized even more by just how tiny the straps were. With the bolero jacket and the fake-waist the dress hinted at, she could hide the fact that working under Tsunade for almost two years had made her grow a back too wide for pretty little girl dresses, with arms more defined than some male shinobi's were, and the flowing, wide skirt of the dress hid the fact that she had thighs the could break a grown man's neck with little effort. Hard, physical work had made her body unsuited for this kind of work, and if she hadn't known as much about dressing up from her girlier days as she did, they would have had to do without her viable source of information altogether.

"Okay, whatever, point taken," Naruto said, rolling his eyes. "You are a vicious killer and that dress makes you look horrible, are you happy now?"

"I'd be happier if you just stopped mentioning the dress every goddamn time I had to wear it," she informed him, not for the first time, but luckily for the last. "It's a disguise, nothing more. If you like the dress so much, you can have it starting tomorrow."

"What did you get?" Sasuke asked from where he was sitting on the window sill, overlooking the backyard and bordering woods behind the inn.

"In food or information?" Sakura asked while reaching around herself with great effort to unzip the dress and get rid of it once and for all.

"Either," Sasuke answered and threw her hair brush which she had put on the window sill at Naruto, hitting him right at the ear.

"What was that for?" Naruto howled and turned around to him, giving Sakura just a little bit more privacy to slip out of the dress and expose the white tube top and shorts she was wearing underneath. Nothing too exposing, granted, just enough to make a quick run for it and fight off a few enemies if she was apprehended while wearing that dress, but well.

"You were gaping again," Sasuke answered. "Figured I'd make you stop before she breaks your bones."

"Ugh, sorry!" Naruto apologized, rubbing his ear. "I'm trying to stop doing that."

"And failing," Sasuke pointed out.

"Whatever," Sakura just sighed and put on a proper shirt over her tube top that did double-duty as chest bindings which she didn't really need. Another, if more unexpected side-effect of working under Tsunade; all her growing up had gone into muscle mass and a broad back and shoulders. Her thighs were almost wider than her hips, her waist was close to non-existent and she wouldn't have to worry about binding her chest to keep it from getting in the way anytime soon, either. And while once she would have resented that fact since it made her less pretty than Ino, who was all long lines and soft curves, she didn't care so much anymore. No breasts were way more practical while fighting, after all, as Tsunade had whined about relentlessly while training her.

"So what about the food?" Naruto asked and helped himself to the big brown paper bag she had brought with her and put down on the bed without waiting for an answer. "Oh, wow, nikuman dumplings again. When have we ever eaten those recently?"

"It's what these villages offer for take-out, what can I say," Sakura muttered and helped herself to some. "Also, I threw in some rice balls today, so that's a change."

"Oh that's just awesome," Naruto laughed. "So in case we're getting tired of round food, we can now have triangular food, too!" He dug through the bag again and then burst out laughing. "Or not, since the kind they sell here is round, too. So much for variety!"

"Quit whining and eat your food," Sasuke ordered and made his way to the paper back. "So about the information..."

"That battle going on just outside the city is apparently over," Sakura recounted, not caring that her mouth was full of beef filled dumpling. "So I guess the best time to get out of here would be tonight."

"Too suspicious," Sasuke disagreed. "And that would mean we reach the area we're supposed to be searching at noon if we make good time, and we'd be exhausted at that point. But if we camp, we'd be too easy to spot in broad daylight."

"Woah, you can actually say more than two sentences at once!" Naruto remarked. Ever since they'd set out, he put a lot of effort into making jokes just about _everything_ in a vain attempt to lift the mood and due to his personal goal to keep everyone from even considering that their sensei might be dead. Sasuke glared at him, Sakura just sighed.

"Those were exactly two sentences," she pointed out. "Just very long ones. Good point, though, so what do you suggest?"

"We have a last night of sleep," Sasuke answered. "Then get out of here just before first light. We get to the area in late afternoon or early evening, scout it out a bit and find a place to rest which ideally can be our base of operations. Then we rest and start searching the day after."

"So we leave Kakashi-sensei waiting for even _longer_?" Naruto asked. "Do we really have to?"

"Sasuke is right," Sakura said, trying to sound soothing. "If we leave now, we'd get to the are in the middle of the night, exhausted and with impaired vision, so any hide-out we could find might be dangerous, and if we rest in the open, we could be spotted without having a chance to assess the situation properly, and putting ourselves in unnecessary danger is the _last_ thing Kakashi-sensei needs. So we go with his plan."

"Sure, whatever," Naruto relented and rolled his eyes. "I'm just saying we're wasting time, and I don't have to like it."

"Nobody's forcing you to," Sakura agreed. "But please, please just go along with what we say, okay?"

"How do you know so much about this kind of stuff anyways?" Naruto then asked Sasuke. Sasuke raised his eyebrows.

"I travelled around with Orochimaru a lot," he reminded them. "If anybody knows how to stay hidden, it's him."

Sakura was about to bring up that pesky little detail about tenses and Tsunade's crude taste in exterior decoration for a second, but decided against it. They didn't really need more reason to squabble right now; tempers had been a little raw the past five days since they'd left on this mission. Of course, the unknown fate of Kakashi was weighing heavily on them, as was the prospect of entering a highly dangerous environment with giant target signs painted on their backs; fake forehead protectors and identities only protected your so long if you were a little bit infamous due to well-known names and mentors already.

"Well, I travelled around a lot, too!" Naruto argued. "Been all over the country with the old pervert, you know? But still, you guys never ask for my opinion."

"There's a difference between travelling for the sake of travelling, and travelling while avoiding being discovered due to the fact you're an internationally wanted criminal harboring more internationally wanted criminals and a recent fugitive," Sakura tried to explain calmly. Sasuke grunted with disapproval at her choice of words. She rolled her eyes at him. "And before you even start, fugitive is the exact right word and if we start arguing semantics now, nobody is going to get any sleep ever again."

"Fine," Sasuke said, rolling his eyes in annoyance as well. "But by the way, Orochimaru was always aware that you and Jiraiya were trying to track us down, but didn't quite manage, so there's that."

"Pffht, shows what you know!" Naruto argued. "We _totally_ managed to keep track of you and knew where you were headed! Hell, we even managed to locate all of your hideouts! How else do you think we could have attacked the place you just so happened to be at?"

"The locations of the hideouts were more of an open secret anyway," Sasuke claimed. "If not every ninja village in the surrounding areas knew of them, they didn't do their jobs right. Considering how much Konoha has in resources and experience, it's sad they needed as much time as they did to figure out my whereabouts."

"Really, guys?" Sakura interrupted this argument before it could derail. "Do you _really_ want to go there?"

"What could you have to say on the subject?" Sasuke asked sharply. " _You_ spent all your time in Konoha, not tracking anybody."

"Yes, I did," Sakura admitted freely. "I spent my time in Konoha doing a lot of Tsunade's paper work. And I've been spending a lot of time with her paper work recently, too, looking into the whole thing. And while your position could never be apprehended exactly, Jiraiya and an ANBU team set on you could figure out the general directions your travels were taking, and we did have a lot of knowledge regarding the hideouts. Fact is, each one we do know about is now deserted, Orochimaru's head is decorating the administrative building, you're experienced in hiding, Naruto is experienced in tracking, and we have to stop being at each other's throats about everything constantly if we want to be of help to Kakashi-sensei at all."

That little rant just seemed to knock the air out of everyone. Naruto sighed deeply and threw himself onto the bed, while Sasuke sighed as well and took a rice ball from the brown paper bag of food Sakura had brought before moving back to his window sill. Sakura marked that one down as a victory for herself and tried not to be bothered by the nagging voice in her head that reminded her that her primary role on this team was supposed to be being a _calming agent_ of all things.

"So what now?" Naruto asked, sounding tired.

"Food, baths and rest," Sakura suggested. "There's no telling how long we'll be without proper food, running water and a relatively safe place to sleep, so let's take advantage of that."

"We should start watch shifts," Sasuke added, "So we get used to the rhythm."

"Huh?" Naruto asked. "What are you talking about?"

"Third academy year," Sakura sighed. "'When travelling in small groups through enemy territory during a mission, the team has to assign watch shifts during resting periods, so as to not be caught by surprise should the enemy track them down. The length of the individual shift ought to be appropriate as to how much time the team has to spare and how much rest is necessary. Is there need for a prolonged resting period due to injury and the like, fortifications should be built.' Anyone have any suggestions as to what appropriate resting periods would be in our situation?"

"We're still relatively well-rested and in a fortified location," Sasuke said with a mocking edge in his voice due to her quoting the textbook. "So I'd say three hour shifts, one for each, starting after we've all bathed."

"So we'll get going in like, what, nine hours?" Naruto asked. "I mean, plus the time we each need to take a bath, that is. Do we have that much time if we want to leave at first light, whenever that is?"

"Well, it's around four in the afternoon right now," Sakura said. "So we'll be ready to start shifts at half past five or six, approximately. Meaning nine hours of resting would make us ready to go at three in the morning, with first light being at five thirty, so we can even have a longer resting period, all things considered." She thought about this for a minute. "Four in splits, I'd say."

"Fine," Sasuke agreed.

"...What?" Naruto asked in confusion. Sakura sighed again.

"Four in splits means the total watch-shift time is four hours," she explained. "But we split it up so everyone gets two hours watch, then four hours of sleep, for a total of eight hours over the course of twelve. We'd have to start the shifts and all a little earlier than that, since we should be out of here by five thirty, which means we have to be up by five at the latest. In other words, you eat up, take a quick bath and start sleeping, since your shift is going to be last."

"Wait, when did we decide on an order?" Naruto asked in confusion. "And how am I supposed to know what time it is or when two hours are over? The plan has holes all over the place!"

"You look out the window and watch the sun or moon move," Sasuke explained. "Get your ass over here and I'll show you."

Sakura raised her eyebrows at Sasuke's willingness to help out, but decided not to call him out on it. The more anyone agreed to cooperate, the happier she was.

_Calming agent, calming agent, calming agent_ , a nasty voice whispered to her again but she decided to ignore it in favor of watching how Sasuke very roughly pressed Naruto's face against the window and pointed at stuff outside.

"Okay, I get it, let me go," Naruto finally complained and wrenched himself free. "Two more questions, though; when did we decide on an order of shifts, and why do we have to split them up? Wouldn't it be better if we all just slept through the entire time?"

"Technically, yes," Sakura admitted. "But the thing is, how long will you be able to keep yourself awake, in the middle of the night, on your own, without waking us up?"

"...Good point," Naruto agreed. "Okay, and the order? Does that have some fancy and logical explanation as well, or did you just pull that out of your ass?" He paused a moment. "Come to think of it, I get the feeling a lot that the two of you just pull stuff out your asses to make me feel stupid..."

Sakura hesitated a moment, trying to find the right and not too worry inducing words to explain her reasoning to Naruto, but Sasuke was having none of that 'spare his feelings' or something bullshit.

"You're last because you're always up first," he explained before Sakura could. "Sakura takes the first shift because she falls asleep last. I take the middle shift because I never sleep through the night anyway. Logical enough for you?"

Naruto looked at Sasuke in confusion, then at Sakura for confirmation. When Sakura nodded and shrugged apologetically, he groaned.

"How the hell do you guys even _notice_ crap like this?" He then asked, apparently deciding not to worry why Sakura might have trouble falling asleep or why Sasuke didn't manage to sleep through an entire night most of the time. "Seriously! I just fall asleep and wake up whenever and try not to care!"

"Well, and that's your thing," Sakura said. "Our thing is paying attention to little details like that. And you know what else is your thing? Eating up and taking a bath now, so we can start rotations."

"But shouldn't _he_ go to sleep first?" Naruto asked again. "I mean, his shift is second, so that way he'd get the most out of it, right?"

"Well, he also needs longer to fall asleep, so the chance he'll sleep at all during the first two hours before his shift are minimal anyways," Sakura explained quickly. "So you're getting the head start, since also you are the crankiest if you don't get enough sleep, and we do not want you cranky, got it?"

"You mean that's the only time I ever get cranky," Naruto corrected her, shoving a last dumpling into his mouth. "Since otherwise I'm the only one here who's not constantly cranky or mean or annoyed or whatever, and you guys just can't deal with not having my good mood and awesomeness around, I get it." He grinned at them. Sasuke rolled his eyes in annoyance, and Sakura suppressed a giggle.

"If that makes you feel any better," she then said to soothe him. "Now get your ass into the bath so we can get started, will you?"

 

***

 

In true Naruto- fashion, he was asleep like a baby almost immediately after returning to their room after taking a bath. Technically, Sasuke and he could have gone together, but there had been a silent agreement that due to risk of injury and property damage, that was not going to happen if it could be avoided at all. Sakura took a bath immediately after Naruto fell asleep so Sasuke could try falling asleep right after his own bath, too. But when he returned from the bath, thankfully fully dressed but damp hair swept out of his face in a very odd way that she hadn't quite seen before, he appeared to have other plans as he walked over to where Sakura had taken his place on the window sill.

"You should try to get some sleep," Sakura tried shooing him away. Having a sort of damp Sasuke this close to her made her a little nervous in spite of herself. He was still Sasuke, and she had seen him damp with his own sweat several times, so why was dampness with less smelliness any different now?

"Won't work," Sasuke brushed off her suggestion.

"Are you worried as well?" Sakura asked, focusing on the setting sun outside. Sasuke shrugged.

"There's something not adding up," he said after a while. "More to this mission, or Kakashi's mission, than they told us."

"Of course there is," Sakura said. "They even said they didn't tell us everything for reasons that shouldn't concern us."

"Think about it that way;" Sasuke started grimly. "How many things important enough to have Kakashi track them down are going on right now that _don't_ concern us at all?"

That gave her pause for a minute. And then she remembered something.

"Tsunade-sama... She mentioned something about your brother," Sakura said carefully. "Not _exactly_ in relation to this mission, but Jiraiya cut her off, so..."

"My brother is part of a bigger organization called the Akatsuki," Sasuke explained. "Orochimaru used to be part of it too, but didn't really say much about it. But the last time I saw Itachi, he and some other guy who looked like a fish were after _Naruto_ for some reason."

"Come to think of it, quite a few things about Naruto don't add up, either," Sakura pointed out. Sasuke shook his head.

"More than you know," he muttered. "But my point is... Jiraiya showed more concern about this than Tsunade. And Jiraiya is mostly concerned about Naruto, right?"

"Well, in a way, I guess," Sakura admitted. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Do you _really_ buy his bullshit that he's concerned about _the team_?" He asked incredulously. "That's only true as long as it applies to Naruto. Without him, he wouldn't give a rat's ass about us. Hell, I'd buy _Tsunade_ being concerned about our collective well-being before I buy his, since she at least has some stakes in what we can do for the village."

"Or maybe someone just actually happens to care for a change," Sakura suggested sharply. "That occurs a lot more often than you think, actually."

"Whatever," Sasuke waved her off. "Jiraiya was concerned about this primarily because of Naruto."

"Kurenai was concerned about this, too," Sakura reminded him. "And I don't think she has any particular interest in _any_ of us, so that was more due to the principle of the thing. That might be what Jiraiya is worried about, as well, all things considered."

"Yes, Kurenai," Sasuke agreed. "That's telling, too. Remember the only person she mentioned besting her?"

"She mentioned your brother to get you to behave," Sakura said, trying to steer him off course. "I know where you're trying to go with this, but I don't think they'd send us after your brother just yet, and then without even telling us upfront. In any case, that would get _you_ a lot more motivated to go through with this, wouldn't it? And yet they were careful to make it clear that there's no chance of us running across your brother at all."

"Well, even if that's the case," Sasuke said, sounding unconvinced. "It still might be about this organization he's part of and that is after Naruto. That would explain the people involved and why Jiraiya really didn't want us to go."

"I don't think Tsunade would be stupid enough to send Naruto out like that into the arms of people who want him for nefarious purposes," Sakura argued. "That'd be too risky even for her."

"Whatever," Sasuke said. "What I mean is that you need to tell me how to do this focus thing."

That caught her by surprise.

"Wait, what?" She asked after staring at his very deliberately blank face to make sure she'd heard him right. "What focus thing? What are you talking about and why do I need to tell you anything?"

"The way you broke out of that genjutsu," he clarified.

"Okay..." She said, somewhere between amusement and confusion. "Just for the record, you don't need to come up with some sort of horror story to make me paranoid just to get me to teach you things."

"I didn't come up with that," Sasuke snapped at her defensively. "The clues are there; make of it what you will. So you'll... Teach me?"

"Well, sure," Sakura affirmed, shrugging. "It's not exactly difficult and we do have nothing better to do for the moment." She cheerfully focused a little bit and turned the entire room purple in his perception. Sasuke looked at her skeptically.

"Impressive," he then remarked dryly. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"No sassing your teacher," she insisted. "My goodwill is only a little bigger than Kurenai's, and that's just because I don't like being pumped full to bursting with chakra just because you can't focus where to put it."

"Get on with it," he grumbled. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Make your pinky glow with chakra," Sakura commanded, enjoying this just a little bit too much. "Like this; only use enough chakra to get it to glow, and only the pinky. That's going to be all the chakra you need to break out of this."

Sasuke did as he was told and held out a blue glowing pinky in her general direction to prove it.

"So now what?" He asked imaptiently.

"Now you look into your head for the place where the illusion is," she explained. "Find the tiny point of pressure on your perception and focus on that."

Sasuke frowned first, then closed his eyes and scrunched up his face as if deep in thought. It took him a while, then he relaxed a little.

"Got it," he announced.

"Then release all the energy from your pinky now," Sakura instructed. "And remember, nothing more than that. It's like you're poking through the illusion using just your pinky, basically, if that helps."

She felt his chakra flare up in her own head where she kept the illusion up. It was still a little too wide-spread, and she would have been able to counter this by reinforcing the illusion immediately, but dropped it for the time being, feeling only a slight dizziness for a second as she hadn't put all that much power into the illusion to begin with.

"Is everything always so fucking precise for you?" Sasuke asked in horror after making sure the room was not purple anymore, and instead just in a soothing orange tone from the sunset.

"Well, let me put it that way," Sakura started, stretching her arms nonchalantly. "If I imprecisely pump someone wounded full with my chakra, I might just make their innards explode. If I punch the ground with an imprecise amount of chakra, I might either break my hand or punch a crater so deep I lose all footing and get buried myself, and do you have any idea how horrible being buried alive is? So yeah. It's always that precise for me. Don't worry, you get used to it, I think."

"Did that happen?" He asked with a slight smirk. "You burying yourself by punching the ground with too much chakra?"

"No," she answered. "Tsunade made sure to tell me all the gruesome things that could happen if I did that beforehand, so I, ah, restrained myself very well."

"You buried _me_ alive once," he then said, smirk widening. "That was horrifying."

"I didn't bury you; I shoved you into a hole in the ground!" She argued. "Your head and shoulders were still above ground, and you seemed a little more concerned with your sword at the time, remember?"

"You were using it wrong," he claimed, but she could tell he wasn't being all that serious now. "I had to sharpen it twice afterwards."

"That only means you didn't sharpen it right the first time," she pointed out, trying to suppress a smile and failing. "And also, when your sword gets blunt from cutting up people, I think it's time to look for another sword, this one is clearly not doing its _one job_ properly."

"Whatever," he said and rolled his eyes mockingly. Then his expression turned serious again. "Do another genjutsu, but with more power this time."

Now Sakura rolled her eyes, less mockingly, and sighed.

"But only because you asked so nicely."

 

 

* * *

 

The first night on enemy soil was spent camping under giant mushrooms. Growing from trees. Giant mushroom trees. Sakura had never been into nature much beyond floral arrangements, but for some reason, she was pretty sure that mushrooms usually did not grow on trees, or as trees. From trees, maybe, but also not in this size.

"This is creepy," Naruto said as they huddled around a map in the light glim of Sakura's hands glowing with chakra. They couldn't exactly build a fire on enemy territory, but needed to plan their next steps out carefully. There was a general area where they might search, but they were way more likely to run into enemy mobs here than they were to run into Kakashi one way or the other.

"No kidding," Sakura agreed. "But focus on the map, please. Currently, we're right around here." She pointed at a little sign scribbled on the map that said 'mushroom'. Before actually making their way here, Sakura had assumed someone had been a little distracted when labelling the map quite some time ago, but now she was starting to get it. That also made her assume that 'bamboo', 'grass' and 'flowers' indicated giant forests with just that as well.

"I vote we search flowers first," Naruto said. "That sounds the least creepy and in any case, can't get any worse than this."

"Yes, unless the flowers are carnivorous or have pollen that we're allergic to," Sakura argued. "I vote we search the mushroom area tomorrow and once we're done, we move on to bamboo. That's the least likely to kill us."

"Agreed," Sasuke muttered.

"Fine!" Naruto then moaned, shoved his soldier pill for the day into his mouth and stretched out on the giant mushroom head they were resting on. They'd taken high ground, out of the way of any shinobi travelling through this forest (unless Kusa ninjas preferred to literally run across treetops), from which they could overlook the surrounding area and yet were covered pretty well by all the mushrooms on the trees. Unfortunately, those things also provided cover for their enemies, so that was a mixed blessing at best.

Their watch schedule remained unchanged from that first time they tried it, just that now they had moved on to only two hours shifts, and only one for each. That way, they were out of commission only six hours at a time, a relatively short period, and could move out really quick since it wouldn't pay out to build anything even remotely permanent. And honestly, it was okay for a night, but Sakura did not want the head of a giant mushroom on a giant tree to be their base of operations for however long it would take them to search the area. Even as high up as they were, the canopy of mushrooms was still thick enough not to let any sunlight through and gave them enough shelter in case of rain or worse, but the eeriness of this place just weighed heavily on her mind. Almost as heavily as her growing concern regarding Kakashi's wellbeing. Seeing this country herself for the first time just made her realize how dangerous running around here alone while tracking someone very important probably was; they'd been across the border for less than twelve hours and had already stumbled upon three battle fields. Who the hell had been fighting here they had no idea, and neither did the locals in the villages across the border she had been spying on for the past few days, but it definitely were shinobi, otherwise other shinobi, the ones from Kusa who were in charge of stabilizing the area for example, would have taken them out already.

Naruto had begun to snore softly in the meantime.

"I will never understand how he does this," Sakura muttered. "Just falling asleep like that. Must be awesome."

Sasuke grunted in agreement. He took almost as long to fall asleep as Sakura did, just as she had predicted when setting up their watch schedule, but had an even worse time actually sleeping through the night. Which was also getting more and more familiar to her, to be honest. The nightmares involving landslides and collapsing rooms just wouldn't go away.

 

Giant mushrooms did not make for good beds, Sakura noted the next day when her back ached after getting up. No good at all. And also, they made looking for clues regarding Kakashi's whereabouts horribly complicated, so they actually had to do the absolute worst thing you could do on enemy territory with just three people; split up and meet up again at the end of the day. Which had to be estimated by looking at how much light managed to make it through the trees.

Sakura had been assigned to covering the ground level, where she found absolutely nothing except for a few corpses from previous battles. Most of them had no forehead protector to signify allegiance. A few of them wore the tell-tale purple ribbons Oto ninjas used to wear. That was about three times as foreboding as a forest made up of giant mushrooms. Besides those, the corpses had all been stripped of anything useful save for what she assumed to be an interesting poison which she took with her just for the hell of it. Gave her something to do in her free time that didn't involve being around her mother.

Twice she encountered living shinobi; one she could evade by simply getting on a higher level of mushroom, the other one she had to kill as he had been just about to give chase to a hint of orange that had hushed through the mushroom heads above them; Naruto and his incredible subtlety. Or one of his clones. Same difference, really.

The shinobi she had taken down wore a forehead protector linking her to Ame Gakure, of all places. What these guys could be up to around here, she had no idea. And the woman wasn't carrying any hints regarding Kakashi, either, so she also didn't really care.

They had agreed upon meeting on the south-western edge of the mushroom area, right where it was supposed to transition into bamboo. How such a transition was supposed to be possible under natural conditions, Sakura had no clue, but then again, she also wasn't quite sure how mushrooms like this could grow out of trees the way they did. Flora outside of the fire country was just plain weird. And people outside of the fire country probably thought the same about flora _in_ the fire country, all things considered.

Due to her slight delay from killing that Ame shinobi, she was the last to arrive at the meeting spot. Sasuke and Naruto were already there, glowering at each other like they had just been arguing again.

"So I guess you guys didn't find anything, either," Sakura concluded en lieu of a greeting.

"Prove yourself," Sasuke insisted instead of answering. Naruto rolled his eyes. Sakura however just bit into her thumb and summoned a tiny slug.

"How may I be of service?" The tiny gastropod said in an excited, high-pitched voice. "Can I heal someone? Please, I wanna heal someone!"

"Just a moment," Sakura placated the little one. "Your turn," she then told Naruto and Sasuke, who in turn summoned small versions of their respective animals.

"I still don't think that counts," Naruto said, pointing at Sasuke's tiny snake while sending away his toad, who was more of a tadpole, all things considered. "You're _so_ not the only snake summoner I know!"

"You're not exactly the only toad summoner we know, either," Sasuke pointed out in annoyance, letting his own summon vanish in the meantime.

"Well, he has a point though," Sakura agreed. "If either of us were Jiraiya or Tsunade in disguise, that wouldn't be much of a problem. But Orochimaru is a whole different story..."

"I thought the consensus was that he's dead and decorating the Hokage building," Sasuke reminded them, rolling his eyes. "But I can turn on the juin if you're more comfortable with that."

"Nah, I have a better version," Sakura claimed and picked up her little summon. "Heal the bite on his thumb," she instructed it. "And then tell us whether he's the real deal or not."

"Yay!" The tiny slug said and went to work. "He is not someone I healed before, so he can't be Orochimaru!" It then informed them excitedly.

"Nice," Naruto said. "Now heal me, too. Whoever came up with biting yourself to summon something in the first place? It's inconvenient as hell!"

"The general thought is that you need to give something of yourself to get something," Sakura provided the short version for him. "A tiny sacrifice, if you will. Be glad it's not bigger than a bit of blood."

"Fine, just don't let me complain, ever, about anything, at all," Naruto moaned and passed the slug along to Sakura. "So I guess you didn't find anything useful, either?"

"No," Sakura admitted. "Just that for some reason, Ame nins are in the area. I killed one before he could chase you. And some Oto fugitives are here, too, but they were already dead when I found them."

"Well, at least you had fun then," Naruto said wistfully. "Sort of. Even if it involved killing people. At least more exciting than what I did all day. So what do we do now?"

"We can't camp there," Sasuke answered, pointing towards the bamboo area. "No shelter, no place to hide."

"I'm not sleeping on a mushroom again!" Naruto immediately said. "No way. That was just too creepy for me. And also uncomfortable."

"Well, the plan was to go around the area and circle in where Kakashi might be," Sakura mulled this over. "We're basically at the edge of it. If we go a little more south, it looked like the terrain there might be more mountainous. So we could check that out."

"Yeah, that sounds better," Naruto agreed and pulled out the map. Sasuke just rolled his eyes but didn't protest.

 

Caves didn't quite make for better beds, but at least they were a little more familiar than giant mushrooms. You also had a slightly more reliable roof over your head, and could look out to watch for people sneaking up without being seen since the insides were darker than the outside. And that was about the most eloquent thing Sakura could think after two days of running around with only four hours of sleep each day. The physical exertion was now dragging her down just as much as the worry about Kakashi since it was a little more immediate for the time being, and than the current confrontational atmosphere on the team. She was pretty damn sure he wasn't doing it on purpose, but Naruto's way of dealing with stress seemed to be to voice every little complaint that popped up in his head. Which was probably still better for the general mood than it would have been had he kept on reminding them all how important it was to hurry and find Kakashi already since he was totally not dead but probably in trouble. Apparently, even Naruto had realized that they did not quite have the stamina to search 24/7.

Their search continued on the next day, where they split up a little bit again, but felt a lot more comfortable doing so since the bamboo provided a lot of visibility in all directions, so they could always see flickers of each other in the distance and not only the occasional flicker of orange. It also made searching the area a lot easier than the mushroom part, since hiding something among bamboo was really, really hard. Which whoever was responsible for Kakashi's disappearance had obviously also known, since their sensei was still nowhere to be seen.

"What a complete waste of time," Naruto sighed when they met up again on the immediate edge of an area that had actual giant trees in it. "Are you guys sure this is the best way to do things?"

"It's the safest," Sakura explained. "We could all split up for several days, but then we won't be able to tell more or less immediately when someone is in trouble, and since this area is quite dangerous..."

"No it's not!" Naruto insisted. "I haven't seen anyone since we came here, and I'm looking with like 20 people at a time!"

"That's because you don't pay attention," Sasuke said. "There are hints of other shinobi _everywhere_."

"And there were quite a few around today," Sakura added. "They just also decided to avoid confrontation with us, thank whatever entity there may be."

"Could you guys stop ganging up on me?" Naruto demanded, growing more and more irritated by the minute. "I get it, I'm blind and stupid and whatever, no need to rub it in!"

"That's not what we're doing!" Sakura said exasperated. "I'm sorry if it comes off that way, but I'm just saying what would be the most logical and efficient approach to all this!"

"Yeah, you're totally not saying what Sasuke wants to hear because you _like_ him," Naruto spat. "Of course, silly me for assuming so."

This was one of those rare, serious moments during which Sakura had to _seriously_ resist the urge to just slam Naruto's face into the ground. But no. She couldn't do that when they were having a serious argument, not if she didn't also want to prove his point and put a dent into their relationship forever. So she took a deep breath, clenched her fists to fight down the urge to use them, and then glared at Naruto.

" _That_ was seriously beneath you," she said, fighting to keep her voice calm. "Childish, inaccurate, and also _mean_. Not even because it's true - it's not - but because you are deliberately trying to upset me now, and _that_ won't make things any better. Look, I get that you're upset with the way things are going, and trust me, I am, too. But constantly complaining about everything isn't going to get us to Kakashi any faster, you hear me?"

"I know that!" Naruto spat back at her. "It's just... We keep doing the same thing over and over again, how is that going to work out? And also, you guys never even _consider_ what I have to say, and that's really mean, too, you know?"

"That's because your suggestions suck," Sasuke injected dryly. Sakura groaned.

"Not helping!" She snapped at him.

"But true," Sasuke said with a smirk. She groaned again.

"Okay, look," Sakura then attempted to keep this from escalating. "This isn't a competition in who's being meaner." He'd still win just for that one comment, followed by Sasuke for his contribution to the conversation, but mentioning that would just make it worse. "I mean, maybe you're right, we've been doing things by the book so far, maybe doing it your way works better here." She was about ninety-nine percent sure that that wouldn't be the case, but maybe she had been selling him short all this time and was just too absorbed in proper protocol to notice, what did she know? "So how about we just do things like you want us to do them tomorrow, after we're all nice and rested and less agitated?"

"How _would_ you do things, anyways?" Sasuke asked before Naruto could voice his opinion on the matter, who seemed to be a little taken aback by the question. He took a while to answer.

"Uh..." Naruto then said, scratching the back of his head. "Well, uhm... Like... search for Kakashi... Faster? I dunno, I didn't really think about it..."

Sasuke shot Sakura a glance that just screamed something along the lines of 'duh'. Sakura glared at him in response, then put on her least creepy fake-smile.

"Well, then you have until we break up camp to think about it," she assured Naruto. That seemed to pacify him for the time being.

They went about their usual nighttime routine quietly after that; Naruto took a little longer to fall asleep, but after the first forty-five minutes of Sakura's watch, both boys had somehow managed to fall asleep, as she could tell yet again by Naruto's light snoring and the way Sasuke's breathing had quieted down and his silhouette occasionally twitched. She knew it was normal for people to twitch in their sleep, and especially while falling asleep, but she was pretty sure the rate at which Sasuke was doing this was less normal.

Her two hours of watch were a lot more restless than they used to be; she couldn't quite shake off the feeling that she was being watched, somehow. More than once she snuck out of the cave to check for other shinobi in their surroundings, but didn't find anything. Well, she also didn't dare to look very hard since that would cut her off from the sleeping boys. So when the two hours had passed and she went to wake up Sasuke for his shift, she whispered in his ear:

"I think we're being watched."

Sasuke nodded, understanding her indirect request of him, got to his feet, Sharingan activated, and approach the cave exit with her, where she would stay behind and guard Naruto while he looked around a bit, being less conspicuous in the dark and all.

He didn't have to look very hard.

"RUN!" A shrill, female voice that Sakura could have sworn she'd heard before yelled somewhere outside, followed by a muffled cry of pain from that exact same voice, as a big mob of shinobi jumped from the mountain their cave was in, effectively cutting off their only point of retreat. Most of them wore Oto-style clothes and ribbons. Dammit.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted before charging at the mob that was targeting Sasuke exclusively for some reason. He was doing a good job at dodging them for the time being, but there were at least twenty of them, so Sakura assumed he might like some help. She tackled a tall, slim guy who had just been about to grab Sasuke from behind and drove him to the ground. After wrestling with him for a few seconds, she was able to slit his throat, only to be grabbed from behind by a woman only slightly older and slightly taller than her. She used the momentum from being lifted to kick down at the ground, flipping her opponent over, then buried a kunai in her chest. Then there was a barrage of Narutos distracting everyone, giving her a little room to assess the situation.

Her estimate of twenty attackers had been about right; Sasuke was cutting through them with his sword, while Naruto took them down by sheer strength in numbers. And then the first person started turning purple. _Fuck_.

Sakura jumped at the girl who was still mid-transformation, landing on her shoulders from behind, but that didn't knock her opponent over, only made her sway just a little. Sakura grabbed at the horns that were emerging from her opponent's skull and tried twisting her head around to break her neck, with little to no success again, before attacking the neck with a poisoned kunai while the other girl clawed at her hands. Her opponent was on the ground within the minute, and Sakura was suddenly very, very glad she had increased the concentration of poison on her Kunais after what had happened with the other Juin people back in Oto.

The crackling of lighting and chirping of birds paused her in her assault on the next opponent, and a quick look at Sasuke told her everything she needed to know. As quickly as she could, she jumped towards the closest tree where the electricity in the ground wouldn't reach her. She was joined there by what was apparently the real Naruto shortly afterwards, while in front of them all their opponents dropped to the ground in paralysis and the shadow clone Narutos went poof.

"Help me finish them," Sasuke called to where they had sought shelter. Sakura jumped back to their cave again and started slitting the throats of those on the ground, while Sasuke cut off heads. Naruto meanwhile, who wasn't exactly cool with killing unconscious people out of necessity, had different plans and jumped up the mountain their little cave was located in.

"Stay right where you are!" She heard him yell, followed by shrieks and the sounds of a brief fight, before Naruto landed in front of their cave again, holding a struggling girl with glasses and asymmetrical red hair that Sakura could have sworn she'd seen before.

"Please, Sasuke-kun, don't let them hurt me!" The girl started pleading as soon as she saw Sasuke. "I... Never meant to... They made me track you down! I'd never do anything to harm you, you know that, don't you?"

"Ugh..." Sasuke groaned and started massaging a spot between his brows. " _You_."

"Wait a minute," Sakura said, finally realizing why this girl looked so familiar. "Weren't you the one who lead that other mob our way when we were trying to get Sasuke out?"

"I thought they were going to rescue him!" The girl defended herself. "They lied to me!"

"Well, did these guys lie to you, too?" Naruto wanted to know, still keeping a tight grip on his captive.

"No, they... they forced me!" She explained, seeming dangerously close to wailing. "Please let me go!"

"How did you manage to track us down so well?" Sakura asked.

"I'm a sensor," the girl answered. "And a damn good one. I... I could be of use for you! Please, Sasuke-kun?"

"Uh..." Naruto said. "Like, I realize that just sensing Kakashi-sensei instead of tracking him down the hard way would be way faster and really awesome and all that, but... Can we trust her?"

"I don't really see another option at this point," Sakura said. "She, ah, looks distraught enough to be honest, you know?"

"Yeah, no kidding," Naruto agreed and got a glare from the girl for his efforts.

"Well, since you seem to know her best, I guess this is your call," Sakura addressed Sasuke who still looked like he was fighting a headache. Given the shrill voice of the girl when pleading at him and her general demeanor, Sakura could guess why.

"She's mostly harmless," Sasuke said after a few moments of contemplation. "Unless she falls into the wrong hands again, so..."

"Yes, you're right!" The girl said eagerly. "I-if you let me help you and take me with you, I can never be used against you again! Please, Sasuke-kun!"

"Wait..." Naruto demanded. "So the idea is to use her to find Kakashi-sensei and then take her with us to Konoha?"

"I guess," Sakura said. "I mean, she seems to be very good at her work, and yeah, seeing how she's been used against us so far, I'd feel a lot better having her on our side."

"I'm on Sasuke-kun's side!" The girl clarified, snapping at her.

"Yeah, cool, same difference," Naruto tried calming her. "And then the two of you can bond over a shared taste in men, yay."

Sakura sighed deeply and was very well aware of the fact that the other girl was now glaring daggers at her.

"Naruto, just... Don't," Sakura said. "You're not helping."

"Hey, just making a friendly suggestion," Naruto defended himself. "And I mean, I get it, taking her with us is a lot better than... Not doing that, and all, so..."

"She's coming with us," Sasuke decided. "Konoha is going to take her in, and I really don't feel like searching forests anymore." He directed his own glare at the girl. "But trust me, as soon as you act up or behave suspiciously, you're dead. Are we clear?"

"Yes, Sasuke-kun!" The girl said excitedly and yanked herself free of Naruto's grip. "Thank you so much, I swear I will never, ever work against you again! I'd never do that voluntarily anyways, you know that, right?"

"Whatever," Sasuke just said, rolling his eyes. Sakura almost felt sorry for the girl. Well, she kind of did anyways. Considering how desperate she was, she must have been through some serious shit to become that way. And also the complete lack of empathy Sasuke had, since, she'd kind of been on the receiving end of that quite a few times herself... Just that it had never seemed quite this crass to her. Her memory was probably a little shoddy on the event in any case.

"So... You need me to find someone for you, right?" The girl then asked. "What can you tell me about him? Anything regarding chakra type or something like that?"

"Fire and lightning, like mine," Sasuke answered. "Should have a little Sharingan in him, too. And a contract to summon dogs."

Sakura wasn't quite sure, but she faintly remembered learning in the academy that sensors only could detect other people's chakra in a very general kind of way, so it confused her a little just how... Specific they were being at the moment. The other girl however seemed entirely unfazed and just closed her eyes for a few moments.

"Mmh, yes, I got your guy," she then said. "He's not too far, do you want me to take you there now or would you like to rest some more?"

"Is it just me or does this sound like one hell of a trap?" Naruto asked suspiciously. Sakura sighed.

"A little shady, yes," she admitted. "But do we have a better option?"

"No," Sasuke immediately answered. "Lead us there now."

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A/N: And there we go. Hello, Karin! She appeared a few chapters back in the background, kudos to all those who spotted her and called this development back in the day. Also, some of you got to the same conclusion about the nature of this mission as Sasuke did. That usually would mean you’re all wrong, because hey, Sasuke thinks so too, but in this case… Well, you’ll see. Maybe.
> 
> In any case, I wish you all happy end-of-the-year holidays, whatever you may celebrate, and a Happy New Year. We’ll see each other on the 4th of January with a chapter I really, really like, unlike this.


	14. Bleed Into Your Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With Karin's help, finding Kakashi is easier than expected. What Team 7 encounters upon finding him, however, is anything but...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy new year, all of you! Have a chapter that's a little different from all the others before. Also, people have had... Mixed reactions to Karin's appearance here. And while I personally find her quite endearing, I understand that this is tagged as SasuSaku, and that's not a place where she is well regarded, for reasons. I can assure you all though that she will not be here to turn this into a love triangle. Ever. I don't do that shit. In fact, I think Karin is fascinating and deserves to be treated with more dignity than the manga afforded her, much like Sakura. Just that I'd say Sakura got more of her dignity intact by the end of it than Karin does, and if you get treated worse than Sakura in this manga... Well. Let's just say then you've hit rock bottom. And while we're on topic, this chapters is somewhat dedicated to another female character who fared worse than Sakura in the manga! She might actually be rock bottom, to be honest. Yeah, have fun figuring that one out.

**14\. Bleed Into Your Mind**

"So, do you have a name?" Sakura asked their silent guide after following her around the normal trees section for a while.

"Not for you," the other girl spat back. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Her name is Karin," Sasuke answered instead. "She was one of Orochimaru's favorites since her chakra and abilities are... Strange."

"I prefer special, but thank you so much!" Karin cooed at Sasuke, and Sakura briefly wondered whether the girl was aware that that had not been a compliment. Then she decided she did not care since that was absolutely not her business. At all. Ever.

So far Karin at least hadn't led them into any traps. And from what she could tell, they weren't being followed or anything, and Karin really did seem absolutely smitten with Sasuke, so as long as Sasuke remained on their side (and he kinda had no reason not to be currently), Karin could probably be trusted. That didn't mean Sakura had to like her. Naruto quite frankly didn't like her, either, judging from the way he kept glaring at the other girl. Well, so far Karin had not only led two mobs that had tried to kill them, but also had made an effort to be as unpleasant as possible to anyone who wasn't Sasuke. Then again, Sakura didn't really feel like she could judge her for that.

"He's in there," Karin said, suddenly stopping in front of another cave. "But... His signature is... Weak..." She looked at them, suddenly seeming frightened. "Whatever's wrong with him, I want you to know that I had nothing to do with it, okay? No matter what you find in there..."

Naruto didn't even stay behind to listen to her ominous last words and immediately stormed into the cave. Sasuke who didn't really seem to care about anything other than the use the girl had for them followed, but Sakura couldn't quite bring herself to just ignore her.

"It'll be okay," she assured the other girl and tried a smile. "I'm a healer, you know?"

"Pah!" Karin said indignantly and crossed her arms in front of her chest. "So am I, and I bet my powers are better than yours."

Sakura sighed and hurried into the cave after the boys, hoping this wasn't just another ambush. But if that were so, surely the girl would at least try to be nice to all of them and not just Sasuke so they'd trust her, right?

"Hey!" Karin yelled after them. "Are you just going to leave me here? We... We had a deal, Sasuke-kun!"

"Come on in with us, then," Sakura answered since Sasuke clearly wouldn't. "If your healing powers are so great, you could help out even more."

She heard Karin's reluctant steps behind her before she found the boys again.

"Stop shaking him!" Sasuke was just hissing at Naruto, who was indeed shaking the limp body of Kakashi and yelling at him to wake up. "He might be injured and you're making things worse!"

"He looks fine!" Naruto argued. "He just won't wake up for some reason!"

Even from a distance, Sakura wouldn't exactly call the malnourished body before her anything in the remote range of fine, so she cleared the last feet of distance, shove Naruto aside and began the standard procedure of examining an unconscious body.

"He's breathing on his own," she declared, ear against her sensei's nose while watching his torso move accordingly. "Weak pulse, but a pulse nonetheless. No external injuries." She did a quick chakra scan of his body, looking for internal injuries and came out clear again. "No internal damage, either, except for malnourishment. He probably hasn't had anything to eat or drink for a long time." She moved on to scanning for brain activity. "His brain still works..." She discovered, but grew worried nonetheless. "But there's something odd about it..." She made her left pinky glow a bit and forcefully opened Kakashi's regular eye to test for retina reaction. "This eye is normal..." She muttered, Sasuke and Naruto breathing down her neck and intently following her every word. She had lost perception of Karin though. Frowning, Sakura moved aside her teacher's headband hiding his Sharingan, and was greeted with just that, only that it had changed appearance. Instead of the predominantly red iris with a black pupil and three small black flames, the pupil now appeared to be read with a big black pattern around it against a red backdrop resembling some sort of Shuriken... With barbs on the tips. And the longer she looked at the eye, the more it appeared to be spinning...

"Fuck," she heard Sasuke hiss before suddenly, the world turned black, white and red around her, and the scenery around them changed entirely.

Naruto, Sasuke and her were standing on a clearing, around a boy who appeared to be around their age, maybe a little younger, and appeared to have gray hair not unlike their sensei's... Or a face unlike their sensei's. In fact, he looked just like Kakashi, only a lot younger and with two black eyes peeking out above his covered mouth and nose, which made the resemblance even more eerie. To the left of him stood a girl around his age, with hair down to her chin that looked a little like Sakura's hairstyle when wet, but was otherwise unremarkable except for two squares decorating her cheeks. Behind the two, a man in his mid-twenties was sitting on a boulder, overlooking the open field starting behind the boulder. He wore a standard ninja working vest and had spiky hair that looked not unlike Naruto's.

"What the hell?" Naruto was the first to ask. "Is that Kakashi?"

"Looks like it," Sakura said. "Sasuke, you sounded like you knew what was going on here?"

But Sasuke was focused on the forest behind them, and indeed, a few seconds later another boy around the age of twelve practically fell out of it. He also had spiky hair and was wearing some odd kind of goggles on his head. Upon seeing him, the boy who looked like a younger version of Kakashi broke into a rant about how dare he be late, and that as a ninja, the logical thing to do would be following the rules.

"Okay, this... Boy sounds a lot like Kakashi, but at the same time _doesn't_ ," Naruto pointed out. "Like, his voice sounds like Kakashi-sensei in small, but what the hell is he _saying_?"

The other boy, however, was having none of it and explained how he had to help an old lady carry her luggage across the street prior to meeting up, which also sounded way too much like Kakashi, just that this boy didn't resemble him at all. But when the little Kakashi-clone called him out on his lie, the guy on the boulder who was apparently their sensei finally interfered.

"Don't say that, Kakashi," he said with an amused tone before praising the other boy, apparently called Obito, for helping the old lady.

"...So that actually is Kakashi?" Naruto concluded, while poking the boy he was talking about, which he didn't seem to feel. He was too busy chiding his sensei for being too easy on the other guy. Sasuke meanwhile started going around the scene to examine the boy called Obito on the ground, and then frowned.

"He's an Uchiha," he announced, pointing at the boy’s back while Obito applied some kind of drops to his eye.

"Those who break the rules and regulations are trash," little Kakashi finished his rant.

"This is... weird..." Naruto declared over the Obito guy demanding Kakashi just be nice and relax for a change. "Really, _really_ weird."

Sakura however was a little too distracted to voice her opinion on what was going on when the girl on the team finally involved herself in the conversation by trying to get the two boys to stop fighting... Like a _calming agent_.

"Is this some kind of joke?" Sakura exclaimed indignantly, looking around accusingly for someone to explain.

"No,” Sasuke answered, frown really, really deep. "This is the past. Kakashi's memory, I think. And some form of genjutsu."

"How is this possible?" Sakura asked. "And why is his memory in a weird color palette?"

"My guess is his Sharingan cast a genjutsu on us," Sasuke said, looking distressed "That... Wasn't a normal one and I... I have seen things like this before... My brother..."

Before they could discuss this further, the scene around them shifted. Now the team was walking across a grassy hill, with the sensei explaining how this was Kakashi's first day as a jounin and that they would split up for some sort of mission.

"Is it just me, or does that sound like a horrible idea?" Naruto asked, staring at the older man. "And also, is it just me, or does this guy look, like, a lot like me?"

"That guy would be the future Fourth Hokage," Sakura said over a conversation regarding getting Kakashi a present for his promotion. "And he has hair similar to yours, but... Oh you've got to be kidding me!" The girl of the group had just given Kakashi special medical supplies. Naruto was paying more attention to what was going on with the other two boys though.

"Hey, this Uchiha guy has a point!" He noted over an argument that now broke out over how the Uchiha guy had not gotten Kakashi a present, which Kakashi was totally okay with and not disappointed at all, since everything a person like this Obito could get him would be useless trash, too. "How _did_ Kakashi-sensei become a jounin at like, what, twelve?"

"Like Tsunade said when we got the mission," Sasuke answered. "Someone shoved kids on a battlefield and if they managed to come back alive, they'd get promoted. Guess Kakashi did that twice." Then he winced at Obito making great exclamations about how awesome the Uchiha clan was and Kakashi dismissing them immediately. Sakura felt his distress too once the girl again stepped in to stop the fight before the sensei did, since apparently all she had to say or do here was distributing healing supplies and being a calming agent, and that just hit a little too close to home in her taste.

However, she stood corrected very soon on that. Instead of saying anything regarding the boy's unnecessarily confrontational behavior, the sensei went on to explain that their mission was to stop the evil Iwa ninjas from invading the Fire Country by marching through what was Kusa Gakure's domain with an alleged force of a thousand ninjas. When he came to that point, the girl pointed out that to accomplish that, they had to have smooth backup, as well.

"So she's the healer and the smart one," Naruto concluded. "Is it just me, or..."

"No, it's not just you, now shut up about it," Sakura snapped at him.

"This makes no sense," Sasuke pointed out. "I get that this is war and Konoha's numbers were small, but how are these people supposed to sneak in behind enemy lines? Kakashi doing that, fine. But the girl's a healer, and risking her that way is stupid. And this Obito is as subtle as..." He caught himself, stared at Sakura and Naruto for a second, and then muttered another curse.

"And that guy who totally looks like me is going to fight the enemy as a distraction all by himself?" Naruto asked while listening to the mission being explained some more. "Isn't that like what the pervert is doing right now? Do you think the old hag _knew_ about this... Whatever?" He indicated at the scene before them.

"I hope not," Sakura growled, as the scene shifted before them again.

 

On the plus side, the mushroom forest looked just as creepy way back when as it did today. On the downside, everything now happened way to fast. Kakashi debuting the chidori, but recklessly rushing into danger with no regard for the very team he was supposed to be leading, and only making it out alive because the actual leader of the team saved his ass with his legendary body flicker technique, while Obito was keeping to the back paralyzed with fear, and the girl stayed with him, either because she was too smart to get between what was going on, or because she had no fighting techniques that were useful in this situation, and Sakura wasn't quite sure what she considered more likely at this point.

In any case, Kakashi got injured and the girl had to heal him, while he was making fun of Obito for being scared. Luckily this time, the soon to be Fourth actually did call him out on his behavior and forbade him using the Chidori ever again since he couldn't see an enemy's counter attack while using it.

"So that's why you need a Sharingan to use it," Naruto concluded. "It all makes sense now! Kinda. I mean. Sort of. Uh..."

"It makes _too much_ sense," Sasuke growled, glaring at the Uchiha on the team, while Namikaze Minato scolded the three on how they lacked the most important thing; teamwork.

Sakura disagreed with Sasuke, though. Seeing all this now probably meant these events held some sort of significance for Kakashi. So how was it he had let his own team, given the way too obvious similarities, just prance around without _ever_ trying to teach them how to work together? If he'd been taught the importance of this at such a young age...

"This is going to go so wrong..." Sakura muttered to herself.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked. "You think they'll fail?"

"They won't, exactly," she recalled. "It's in the records that they succeeded in blowing up the bridge, but... Isn't all of this just terribly foreboding?"

The scene before them shifted again; they were now in the bamboo forest, and the soon to be Fourth had left. The other three were attacked by Iwa ninjas, and the girl, whose name was apparently Rin as they finally learned from the distressed yelling of her teammates, was kidnapped.

"Okay, at least I never sunk that low," Sakura attempted a little bit of inappropriate humor to mask her horror and indignation at the scene, while they watched the two boys argue whether they should go save their teammate or continue their mission and blow up the bridge. "The moment I get kidnapped and you have to rescue me..."

"Kakashi-sensei was kind of a dick," Naruto noted. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"He has a point," he pointed out. "But I guess this is the event that changed his attitude."

"What, so you'd do the same thing he wants to?" Naruto asked indignantly. "If Sakura-chan was captured, there'd be no way in hell..."

"Do I really have to be the hypothetical damsel in this scenario?" Sakura asked, annoyed that apparently her previous point had flown right over Naruto's head.

"There'd be no way in hell she'd want us to come to her rescue and risk the mission," Sasuke finished Naruto's sentence. "Also, Kakashi's right, they wouldn't kill her immediately under the circumstances."

"And also also, I could rescue my damn self," Sakura muttered angrily. "Or wouldn't be taken that way to begin with. Did you see how he got her? Not only did he make sounds before coming back into view, but also, we learn defending against that in the academy right now. In addition to how to behave if you should get captured, so yeah, I think I could handle it without you running to my rescue, thank you very much."

In truth, she wasn’t actually all that sure whether her twelve year old self _would_ have managed to do that; she had been quite prone to cowering in a corner and wait for things to happen to her, hadn’t she? And, even worse, Kakashi had _let_ her be that way, despite all this…

"Then I'm going to go rescue Rin myself!" Uchiha Obito finally declared and walked away from Kakashi, who had hesitated for a brief second only when confronted about his own feelings on the matter, but quickly gathered his composure.

"You go, Obito!" Naruto cheered, his attention elsewhere again. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Sakura crossed her arms in annoyance.

"You don't understand anything!" Little Kakashi argued. "Do you know what happens to those who break the rules?"

"I believe the White Fang was a true hero," Obito answered instead. Little Kakashi froze on the spot, looking somewhere between terrified and desperate.

"White Fang?" Naruto asked, his voice lowered to a whisper, probably because the tension in Kakashi was getting to him.

"Uh..." Sakura rummaged in her head about that. The name did ring a bell... "Kakashi's dad, I think?" She said. "Yes, yes I remember. He was sort of a legend in Konoha for a time, but then chose his comrades over a very important mission, was scorned by the village for it and killed himself." She'd researched stuff about Kakashi whenever she had found the time, at least the formal stuff you could access in her position as Tsunade's apprentice. She had tried the same about Naruto and Sasuke but had hit nothing but dead ends back in the day.

"Ooooh," Naruto said, comprehension dawning on his face. "So that's why this Kakashi is so into rules? Because disregarding them kind of killed his dad?"

"It's true that in the ninja world, those who don't follow rules and regulations are trash," Obito continued after a dramatic pause. "But those who don't care about their friends are even worse than trash!"

That declaration left them all stunned for a moment, until the boys before them finally parted ways.

"Oh no..." Naruto muttered to himself, but the scene shifted again. They were now standing on the high branches of giant trees, as Kakashi came to rescue Obito from the guy who had kidnapped Rin. In the fight that followed, that very same guy was the one to destroy Kakashi's eye where he now had a Sharingan. The shock from seeing Kakashi injured like that seemed to be what it took for Obito to unlock his own Sharingan and kill the guy who had taken Rin. After taking care of Kakashi's wound, the two boys then rushed over to where the enemy was keeping Rin in a genjutsu and managed to save her by temporarily knocking out the other guy involved in the kidnapping. Only temporarily, though; he got back up and as the three of them tried making their way out of the cave, he made the ceiling come down on them.

"No!" Sakura gasped, watching in horror even though the boulders flew right through her. In her mind, the sound of the boulders falling mixed with the horrible aching sound that ceiling had made when she had brought it down on the Juin people, inflicting a similar fate on about a hundred shinobi fighting on the surface, falling into the abyss she had created... The pictures in her mind were so vivid, she almost missed how Kakashi stumbled, and Obito ran back to save him before everything turned to black, but just for a split seconds. Then the dust cleared, and...

"No!" Sakura screamed again and ran over to where Obito was buried under a rock. Little Kakashi did just the same, trying to push the rock off the Uchiha, and Sakura desperately tried to help him, to make at least something right, but her hands passed through the boulder just like the boulders had passed through her. How could this be? She had to help! She had caused this, after all!

"Sakura-chan, what are you doing?" She faintly registered Naruto asking in the background, before there were actual hands on her wrists, pulling her back from the scene.

"Snap out of it," Sasuke hissed into her ear. "This is a memory, we can't do anything."

"But..." She gasped, fighting down tears while watching little Kakashi still struggling with the boulder. "But I... This..."

"No," Sasuke said intently, fastening his grip on her. "You have nothing to do with this. The Iwa guy caused this. He's fled the cave. Leave this be."

But leaving it be was easier said than done while watching Obito mutter his last words. How he was still able to mutter those while half of his body was allegedly crushed went beyond her medical understanding, but she didn't care. Watching this painfully idealistic boy so reminiscent of... Well, Naruto for the most part, meet such a horrible end... Watching Kakashi break down next to him, blaming himself for all that had happened, and watching Rin break into tears right beside him, completely forgetting her medical training and not even trying to maybe ease Obito's passing or anything, it all just... It was too much. It was too much for Naruto as well, she could tell from the corner of her eye, where she registered he had fallen on his knees too, watching the scene with tears in his eyes.

Not Sasuke, though. Sasuke still held onto her firmly, also focused intently on what was happening before them, but he was... Eerily calm. Well, of course he was. This probably didn't even compare to what had already happened to him, personally... It was one thing to feel pain from watching other people lose someone you had close to no real connection to. Losing your entire family at once was an entirely different thing, and seeing Sasuke brace this like it was nothing finally made her realize the gravity of it all. Or at least she thought so, somewhere in her hazy mind. The scene before her became hazy, too, and not just from the tears in her eyes. She could barely make out Obito requesting that his Sharingan should be Kakashi's gift for getting a promotion, and whether Rin could transplant it, before it all turned to black again. Then, before any of them could react to what had just happened, they heard Obito's voice one last time.

"Please, protect Rin."

 

Then there were flashes. Flashes of Kakashi and Rin escaping, only to be surrounded by enemy shinobi. Flashes of Kakashi telling Rin how Obito had been in love with here, and that that's why he would protect her with his life if necessary. Flashes of Rin very obviously getting ready to confess her feeling to Kakashi before he cut her off. Flashes of Kakashi cutting through the enemies with his chidori, but passing out. Then, disconnected flashes of a destroyed bridge, of goggles like the ones Obito used to wear in front of the memorial stone...

 

It was raining. Heavy rain was falling all around them, and there were screams about some... Sort of experimental bodies Kiri used? Something to that effect. And there was Kakashi, running, his chidori and new sharingan activated, towards a figure standing in the rain as if she was waiting for him. It took Sakura a few seconds to realize it was Rin who he was running to, and a lot more than a few seconds to realize that Kakashi had buried his chidori deep in Rin's chest, who had barely time to whisper his name before dying at his hands.

 

The scene shifted. They were on the clearing on which they had started again. Rin was alive, Kakashi had both his original eyes, the person who was to be the Fourth Hokage sat on a boulder, and Obito was late.

"Where were you!" Naruto yelled at the man. "Where the hell were you when they all died?"

"Calm down," Sasuke hissed at him, letting go of one of Sakura's wrists finally to grab Naruto at the back of his shirt before he could rush through the man. "This all has already happened, there's nothing we can do."

"It loops," Sakura noted, her voice hoarse from silently crying. "This... is where it loops. I... Don't want to see it again, please..."

"Then pull yourself together," Sasuke snapped at her. "This is a genjutsu. I don't know how Kakashi was able to cast it or whatever, but it is. We need to break out."

"Right..." Sakura muttered and wiped away her tears. "You're right."

"How are we going to do that?" Naruto asked. "Like, I technically know how, but this seems... Strong."

"It is," Sasuke assured him. "Which is why I need you both to do this."

"Okay," Sakura said numbly and took Sasuke's hands. "I have no idea how it came to this, but it seems our training was good for something after all."

"Naruto, we need your chakra," Sasuke instructed Naruto, who looked at them in confusion.

"...So do I hold hands with both of you, or...?" He asked. Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Put your hands on our backs and channel chakra into them," he ordered. Naruto did as he was asked, and immediately, Sakura felt her system being on fire again from being overloaded with chakra.

"Don't let the chakra bother you," Sasuke hissed, apparently also under some sort of strain from the sheer amount of it that Naruto possessed. "I'll handle that, just tell me where to focus."

"Alright..." Sakura said, and tried focusing on where this genjutsu was affecting her perception the most, trying to guide Sasuke with nothing but her mind. "Does this work?"

"I think so," he muttered. "We'll see."

She tightened her grip on his hands as Naruto poured even more chakra into them. Sakura felt the pressure build inside her head, mostly around the eyes, which made sense since it had been eyes that had sent them here. But Naruto was right, this _was_ way stronger than anything Kurenai had done to them during training. Maybe breaking it from the outside would have been easier, all things considered, but who could expect to be sucked into a crazy powerful genjutsu just from looking into someone's eyes? Well, Sasuke had... Somehow. No matter. She focused again, slightly pushing against the pressure.

"You got it?" She asked Sasuke, feeling his presence where she was pushing, too.

"Yes," Sasuke said, deeply focused. "You need to get Naruto, too."

She hesitated for a moment. How was that supposed to work? Then, instead of thinking about it, she tried to find the same presence she found for herself and Sasuke for Naruto as well. He was less noticeable that way than Sasuke had been, but that was probably since he had no idea what to do except for overpowering her system with _so much chakra_. And then she suddenly had the same presence for all three of them, somehow. She felt it. It was weird, like they were somehow intimately connected. Even more than before, that is.

"Okay, I think we're ready to go," she announced. "Remember, only those three points, you're going to need all the power you can get, this is..."

"I know," Sasuke cut her off. And then her head exploded.

Instead of black and white, everything was now only red, and there was nothing anymore, except red. Her whole body felt like it was on fire and from the pain she felt in her head, it amazed her that she didn't feel its remains trickling down her body. When she came to, a sudden nausea took her, like it so often did, and she stumbled away from where she vaguely made out people and threw up into a corner of the cave.

"Oh my god, Sakura-chan, are you okay?" Naruto asked and hurried over to her with concern in his voice. "Ew!" He then exclaimed upon seeing what she was doing. Sakura wiped her mouth and got back to her feet.

"Sorry... About that..." She gasped. She'd previously thought that the first time she channeled Sasuke's chakra had been tiring. Going by these standards, she should now be dead. Her heart was racing, her clothes soaked by sweat and she was pretty sure she had a nosebleed again. "How... How are you?"

"Better than you," Naruto answered, who in fact looked no worse for wear. "And, uh..."

Sasuke behind them suddenly started laughing. Sakura couldn't remember every hearing him laughing before; she'd seen him amused and smirking a lot, but actual laughter... No, no this was no real laughter. It sounded too raw, and not amused at all, like he was laughing _at_ someone... Turning around, she could see Sasuke was in just as bad a condition as she was; his eyes and nose were bleeding and he was out of breath as well; just that he didn't care and kept on laughing this horrible laugh, head thrown back, disregarding his surroundings completely.

"Sasuke, cut it out!" Sakura tried hushing him while hurrying over to check on his eyes. "We're still wanted around here, remember?"

"I did it!" He just exclaimed between breaths and fits of laughter. "I... We actually did it!"

"Uh, yeah?" Naruto agreed. "We still have to deal with Kakashi, though. And all that shit that just went down, I mean, woah, do we need to talk about that..."

But Sasuke was having none of it. Suddenly serious again, he jumped to his feet, staggering dangerously, and limped over to the entrance of the cave.

"Karin!" He yelled. "Karin, where the fuck are you?"

"I'm here, Sasuke-kun!" The girl answered about one octave and a half higher than she used to talk to Sakura. "What is it.... Oh no, what happened to you? Wha - "   
But she was cut off when Sasuke grabbed by the front of her shirt and roughly pulled her towards him.

"Where is he?" He asked her sharply, practically spitting in her face.

"I don't know who you mean, Sasuke-kun," Karin answered, terror in her eyes. "Please, you're hurting me..."

" _Where is he_?" Sasuke repeated, shaking her for emphasis.

"Sasuke, stop!" Sakura told him while running towards them before he did something to Karin.

"Yeah, seriously, what is wrong with you?" Naruto asked, following.

"Even if..." Sakura started, but rethought her approach when Sasuke turned his glare towards her, bloody Sharingan and all. "He's not here anymore," she instead said. "Kakashi has been in that genjutsu for several days at the very least; _whoever_ put him in it is long gone."

"There's no one around as far as I can sense!" Karin confirmed her thesis. "Please, Sasuke-kun, I'll do anything, just let me go..."

"And even if he was around," Sakura continued firmly, trying to pry Sasuke's hand from where he was grabbing the poor girl. "You are in no condition to fight him right now. We all aren't. What we need to do is to take Kakashi and get out of here; you'll get your chance _later_."

She held Sasuke's gaze for a few, tense moments, then he finally let Karin go, shoved her away for good measure, and turned off his Sharingan.

"Thank... you..." Karin gasped. "I... I'm sorry I couldn't help you..."

"Whatever," Sasuke said and headed back inside the cave. "Let's get the fuck out of here."

"Are you alright?" Sakura asked the other girl who was clutching her throat. Karin immediately glared at her again.

"Yes," she then hissed. "Leave me alone!"

"Dude, Sakura-chan just kinda helped you," Naruto tried to intervene, but Sakura just waved him off.

"Leave her be," she told him. "This, ah, is nothing you want to be involved in."

"Damn right," Karin confirmed. Sakura then went back into the cave to check on Sasuke, who was kicking at the cave walls in frustration. Well, at least he wasn't kicking Kakashi, who was still lying on the floor unconscious without any signs of change. The check-up still came back with the same results, just that his exposed Sharingan eye was back to normal and not casting any weird genjutsu on anyone anymore. Kakashi's brain activity had gone down, though. Now he was properly knocked out, which would do his body a lot of good. Whatever it had been he had been doing, it must have cost him a lot of chakra. But why would he cast such a genjutsu on himself? Or was it as Sasuke suspected actually a Sharingan thing, and just sort of contagious?

"It must have been my brother," Sasuke finally said, slumping down on Kakashi's other side and glaring at him as if he was personally responsible for everything. "There's no other way, nobody else can cast that kind of genjutsu, I _know_ it!"

"Are all Sharingan jutsus contagious?" Sakura voiced her previous thoughts at that. "From where I was standing, it looked like as if Kakashi was casting the jutsu on us."

"He might have tried to turn it back on him," Sasuke said. "I don't know, but Itachi is the only living person who _could_ do this, so do you have a better explanation?"

"None whatsoever," Sakura admitted freely. "And for the moment, all I care about is getting out of here without risking another fight. How are your eyes?"

"Sore," Sasuke admitted and rubbed over them, smearing his face with blood. "And bleeding, apparently." Sakura chuckled.

"So is your nose, by the way," she pointed out.

"You're on to talk," he retorted. Sakura rolled her eyes and pulled a piece of cloth from her medical pouch to wipe her nose with it.

"Mind if I check on your eyes?" She then asked him. "Or are you going to strangle me if I try?"

"I shouldn't have done that..." Sasuke muttered, but put up no resistance when she came over and applied a bit of healing chakra to his eyes. The good thing about almost bursting from Naruto's chakra; she'd been able to retain some of hers despite the ordeal.

"Don't tell me, tell Karin," Sakura told him. "You hurt her, not me."

"I don't think she minds," Sasuke scoffed. Sakura bit her lip in disapproval.

"I don't think so, either," she said. "And that worries me. She's obviously been through a lot of shit, and... Well. It's a little scary to see how she behaves around you, please don't exploit that?"

"As if I'd want anything to do with her," Sasuke muttered. Sakura just sighed and started dabbing away the blood smears on his face with a clean piece of bandage.

"Are you guys coming, or do you need help with Kakashi?" Naruto asked as he walked back into the cave with Karin in tow, both of them looking very, very agitated. Karin's mood was also quite visibly not helped by the fact that Sakura was currently touching Sasuke's face. With cloth. To wipe away blood stains. But hey, she was still touching him, so of course she deserved the other girl's scorn, right?

"For now we can handle him," Sakura answered Naruto's question unperturbed. "But we'll have to take turns throughout."

"Why doesn't he wake up?" Naruto then wanted to know.

"An interesting question," Sakura sighed and finished up cleaning Sasuke's face. "Well, he's physically weak, for one thing. We might be able to get some nourishment into him if we can get him to swallow, but I doubt that's all there is to it." She went over to Kakashi and readjusted his headband to cover the Sharingan in case the freaky flashback jutsu broke out again. "Sometimes, being in a very strong genjutsu for too long sets the body into a kind of shock coma, you know? And I'm afraid that's what happened to him... He's still alive, of course, but we can't do much to help him if I'm right about that. And his brain activity indicates I am." She draped one of Kakashi's limp arms over her shoulder. "Somebody help me?"

"I can't," Karin declared immediately. "I'm a non-combatant, I couldn't carry limp bodies and jump through the trees at the same time if my life depended on it."

"That's okay, all you have to do is tell us how we can avoid other shinobi on the way back," Sakura assured her, even though her words were automatically met with a glare. Naruto took Kakashi's other arm, and off they went.

 

Travelling in silence, carrying a limp body and with Karin as a guide was surprisingly quick. Sure, they still had their watch shifts in order, since none of them completely trusted Karin not to lead them into a trap yet, but it was... Easier, somehow. Kakashi's possible fate didn't weigh so heavy on their minds anymore. Sakura was able to get some mushed up soldier pills into their sensei with a little water and some nasty tricks to make unconscious people swallow, and for what it was worth, his condition didn't improve, exactly, but it didn't get any worse, either.

They also spent their time in relative silence, only speaking when necessary. The constant arguing and nagging that had kept them down before was now completely gone; everyone was almost horrifyingly agreeable and cooperative. Under usual circumstances, Sakura would have welcomed this change. However, she could tell that this had only occurred since what they'd seen in Kakashi's... Mind, memories, overpowered genjutsu, whatever, had them all preoccupied for the moment. Sakura herself was mostly angry. For all her bravado regarding the kidnapping scenario, whether she would have been able to handle the situation before her training with Tsunade was dubious at best. And Kakashi had to have known that. And given what had happened to him and his... Team, of sorts, wouldn't it have made way more sense for him to do everything in his power to prevent that from happening to them, too? Instead, he had brushed her off when it came to training more times than she could remember, while finding a different teacher for Naruto had been no big deal at all. An unsuitable teacher, granted, but that was still better than no teacher at all. It was horribly frustrating to even think about, even more frustrating than it had been before. Why hadn't Kakashi ever done anything? Given his baggage and all that. Also, why had he never told them about this stuff? If there was anything that might have scared them into cooperation, it might have been this cautionary tale... Well, it had done exactly that. Though to be honest, Sakura would have preferred their little spats over watching everyone just stare off into nothingness deep in their own thoughts every time they set up camp. They would have to talk about this, at some point, but on the road with Karin present and disapproving of everything that did not come from Sasuke was really not the right time to do so.

 

So when they finally reached the village gates in the late afternoon of day seven, their supplies almost replenished, Sakura had never, ever been so glad to be home again. She was so glad that instead of immediately reporting back to Tsunade, she dragged everyone to her own house first.

"Mom?" She called from the front door, not wanting to go in with her shoes and everything as dirty as they were. "Are you home?"

"Sakura, dear!" Her mother called back and hurried down the stairs, almost dropping the feather duster in her hand when she saw Sakura in the doorway, dirty and utterly exhausted, with three more teenagers in the background, equally dirty and exhausted, carrying an unconscious man.

"Please don't freak out," Sakura said, as soothing as she could manage under the circumstances. "We need to report to the Hokage's office now, pretty much immediately, but after that... We'd all like some dinner, please?"

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Shit's got to be bad if Sakura voluntarily goes to her mom for anything. This chapter and the next provide a bit of a turning point, if you couldn't tell; people get their shit together, mostly. And soon we'll be able to move on to the third arc! Out of... Five... So we're almost at the half-way point? Of this part. Oh my god I'm going to hit 200k with this am I not.
> 
> Yes, I would argue that out of every character in the manga, Rin got treated with the least dignity. Grown-ass Obito salivating over the memory of her twelve year old self in the end does not help. At all. This poor girl gets to keep the boys from fighting, distribute healing supplies, get kidnapped, fridged, and then her corpse gets dragged out to be molested for flashbacks and weird send-offs. Yes, implanting eyes to be fully functional on the field is pretty damn impressive. That makes her treatment besides this one instance of awesomeness all the more horrifying, to be honest. And we didn't even get an Edo Tensei of her to set the record straight, oh no. Let's just fight the Akatsuki all over again, that'd be more fun. Random legendary guys that drop completely useless legendary loot! Armadillo penises! I'm not bitter, shush.
> 
> See you all in two weeks!


	15. Itchin' On A Photograph

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After returning to the village, Team 7 discovers that they were severely screwed over and that yet another conspiracy might be afoot. And also, Karin moves in with Sakura. Hurray!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, after things got intense the last time around, this is a bit of a breather chapter. Which means there is a lot of talking going on, because God knows people in this fanfiction don't talk enough (even if they all might sound like teenagers on the internet, I'm sorry about that and trying to work on it).

**15\. Itchin' On A Photograph**

The moment they entered the Hokage's office, Shizune and a team of medics descended upon them and took Kakashi away to the hospital.

"He's stable," Sakura barely had time to call after them. "But in a shock from severe exhaustion and being in a powerful genjutsu for too long, just so you know!"

"Okay, first things first, who's that?" Tsunade asked and pointed at Karin, who was halfway hiding behind Sasuke and trying to look way more demure than she actually was.

"How is that first?" Naruto asked. "Like, isn't Kakashi-sensei and what happened to him and all that a little more important?"

"She's trying to check whether Karin can stay in the room for that conversation," Sasuke explained in annoyance. "And no, she has no clue and does not have to be here for that."

"Can she maybe speak for herself?" Tsunade asked, rolling her eyes. "Come on, girl. What are you doing here, where are you from and why should I be interested in what you have to say?"

"I-I'm Karin," she answered, and Sakura couldn't quite tell whether the other girl was actually intimidated by the situation or just a damn good actress. Actually, that was always hard to tell with her. "And I... I used to work for Orochimaru, until, well..."

"Oh, that's just great," Jiraiya muttered, who had somehow made it back to Konoha before they had. "So you used to be part of his freak show and now want to join us?"

"...Basically," Karin admitted, avoiding her gaze. "I-I... I'm a... Sensor of sorts. More accurate than most, to be honest, and..."

"She's extremely specific," Sakura interjected, wanting this to be over with as quickly as possible. "She can tell everyone within at least a ten mile radius apart, tell you all about their kinds of chakra and their favored way of using it, if a jutsu is being used and what it is and all that. Should basically be impossible, but I've seen her in action." As thanks for helping out, Sakura was glared at again. Oh, wow. Lovely.

"Is that so..." Jiraiya said, looking interested. "Do you have any idea where you were from before Orochimaru took you in?"

"No," Karin answered immediately. "I just... I just remember the village I'm from burning... And then... Well..."

"Out with it," Tsunade demanded. "We don't have all day."

"Well, people have always used my abilities," Karin answered, her voice a little steadier and a lot more defensive. "The moment the village burned down, some thugs took me to look for easy shinobi targets for them. That continued for a while until Orochimaru took me in, and he was the first one to treat me decently while using me."

"That's a disturbing thought," Jiraiya said, frowning. "Him and decent, I mean..."

"You don't get an army of teenage mutants to dedicate their lives to you by mistreating them," Tsunade reminded him. "Never a good idea to mistreat those working for you, period, and he was not stupid. Just misguided."

"Well, Karin has been back to getting handed around after Oto was destroyed," Sakura picked up the story. "And she has twice led a mob of angry Oto survivors to us, but I'm pretty sure that if we take her in, she could be trusted not to do that again."

"Yeah," Naruto chimed in. "She's a bitch, but she'd probably be happy to work where ever Sasuke's at, so that's a thing."

"Do you _want_ to work for this village?" Tsunade implored, frowning and looking at Karin intently.

"Well, at the very least it beats being dragged around by outlaws, doesn't it?" Karin offered as an explanation together with a smile, having apparently picked up on the more easy-going bordering on impertinent tone that was usually used in this office ever since Tsunade had taken over.

"Good point, alright," Tsunade admitted, leaned back and folded her hands. "If you turn right from the office and walk down the corridor, fifth door on the left is the registry office. Enter your personal data and all that there and we'll get you processed. Do you have a rank?"

"Yes!" Karin answered eagerly. "I was a Genin back at Oto, and, well..." She glanced at Sasuke really quickly and blushed as if on cue. "I even participated in a Chuunin exam in this very village some time ago..."

"She did," Sasuke confirmed, rolling his eyes. "She's not a combatant and more of a specialist, though."

"That explains why she let herself be used instead of trying to get her freedom," Tsunade pointed out. "Alright, would you be up for another Chuunin exam any time soon?"

"I-if that's what it takes to stay here..." Karin said hesitantly. "I... Can be of use to a team, I'm sure..." She threw a glance first at Sakura, then at Naruto, but swallowed whatever comment had obviously been on her tongue.

"Are you guys gonna vouch for her?" Tsunade then asked Sakura and her boys. Sakura and Naruto exchanged a glance; Naruto shrugged.

"If necessary," Sasuke was the first to say.

"Well, you're out," Tsunade said. "You're on probation and can't vouch for anyone."

"I'm _what_?" Sasuke asked.

"On probation," Tsunade repeated. "Part of your terms of reinstation, lasting as long you remain a Genin. Did I forget to tell you that? Silly me."

"We'll vouch for her," Sakura said before Sasuke turned on his temper. "Is that going to be enough?"

"Not that we _like_ it," Naruto added. "But she did help us after we took down that mob she led to us and all that, so yeah."

"Yeah, that'll do," Tsunade said. "So now she only needs a place to stay. She won't really have an income for quite some time, registration process and all that, and I don't run a charity. Suggestions?"

"I live in a tiny little apartment that I can barely afford myself," Naruto said first. "So I'm out. But the bastard's got an entire estate, doesn't he?"

"No," Sasuke said immediately.

"No you don't have an estate or no you won't take her in?" Naruto asked with a smirk.

"We have an extra bedroom," Sakura sighed. "I'm sure my mom won't mind."

"I don't need any help from you!" Karin snapped at her, then seemed to realize that that maybe didn't send the best impression to her superiors, and looked at Tsunade apologetically. "I mean, uh, I'd rather..."

"Well, from what I see, you do need help from wherever you can get it," Tsunade pointed out. "So yeah, Sakura, ask your mom about that. Once you're properly enrolled here we'll find some way to put you on a payroll and you can get your own place. Now off to the registration office you go."

With a bow way more polite than Karin was, the girl left the office. Tsunade sighed.

"Didn't your mothers ever tell you not to pick up everything you find on the street?" She asked nobody in particular.

"Nope!" Naruto answered freely. "My mom never told me anything! I don't even know her name, and stuff. Like, if I didn't know there was a, uh, biological necessity or something for me to have a mom, I'd be pretty sure I just grew on a tree or something."

That just made Tsunade sigh again and for some reason glare at Jiraiya, who shrugged and looked very interested in what was happening outside the window all of a sudden. Interesting.

"She's a little weird," Sakura then tried saving the situation. "And not very nice and all, but she's been through a lot and her abilities are incredibly useful, so I'm sure she'll be a valuable asset to the village."

"Oh I don't doubt that," Tsunade said. "Orochimaru didn't run a charity, either, so I'm pretty sure he wouldn’t have taken anyone in who wasn't incredibly useful. But now let's get back to business. Report what happened."

That order was met with another uncomfortable exchange of glances.

"We, uh, ran around aimlessly for a while before we got Karin's help," Naruto tried his luck. "Then she led us to Kakashi who was unconscious, we took him and came back here."

"Fascinating," Tsunade commented. "Could you add a little more detail? For example, what was the weather like and did you make any new friends besides that girl you came home with?"

"How about we trade?" Sasuke asked bitterly. "You tell us who he was tracking, and we tell you whatever we know."

Tsunade raised her eyebrows.

"Oh, yes, of course, we are so dependent on your information that we'll absolutely reveal classified information just like that," she said mockingly. "If I tell you it had nothing to do with your brother, will you let it go and cooperate like a good shinobi on probation?"

"No, because that's a lie," Sasuke answered sharply.

"Well, he kind of has a point there," Jiraiya chimed in. "I mean, I'd sure like to know how he came to that conclusion, and there is _kind of_ a connection between Kakashi's target and his brother, isn't there?"

"...You mean to tell us that you sent Kakashi after someone from that... Organization Sasuke's brother is part of?" Sakura asked aghast. "An organization that for all we know is _after Naruto_?" She glanced at Sasuke. "Well then, I stand corrected, sorry for doubting your investigative skills."

"And that's why I told you this was a foolish risk to take," Jiraiya said with grim satisfaction.

"Well, and here they are, perfectly fine and mostly unharmed," Tsunade pointed out, rolling her eyes. "Yes, it was a risk, but a calculated one. And no don't tell me I'm not supposed to gamble with lives, that's literally what my job is, and at least here I am _good_ at it."

"I feel used," Naruto contributed. "And also confused. What the hell is going on?"

"Remember Sasuke's brother and the giant fish guy with him?" Jiraiya asked dryly. "We ran into them at a hotel once. Well, the cloaks or dresses or whatever they were wearing are actually the uniform of some weird organization. We don't quite know what they want, but they're apparently after you."

"So you basically _did_ shove us onto a battlefield dangerous as hell and waited to see if we came out alive?" Naruto summarized. "Granny!"

"No, I was sure all the dangerous battles were over and that you guys would come back alive," Tsunade corrected him firmly. "This was in no way any more dangerous than sending you into Orochimaru's base to retrieve your teammate. And it's also part of the job, so stop being so upset over it. If you think this was reckless, you should take a look at what we used to send genin teams to do during the war... I have the files stored somewhere in this building, would you like to take a look?"

"No thanks," Naruto said, his voice unnaturally cold. "I've had enough of that. Do we at least get a promotion for this?"

"Nah, you'll have to take the exams again just like everyone else," Tsunade answered, brows furrowed. "What do you mean you've had enough of that?"

It seemed like Naruto was about to spill what little leverage they had, and Sakura did not consider that a good idea. There was a lot more to this, she could tell, and also, she'd want to hear Kakashi's view on the events they had witnessed before listening to anyone else. So she put a calming hand on Naruto's shoulder and gently pulled him back from the confrontation.

"What he means is that we've spent the last few days digging through abandoned battle sites looking for clues as to where Kakashi was," she lied without batting an eyelash. Tsunade had willfully risked their safety, and while yes, there was always danger in a mission, delivering Naruto on a silver platter to people who might want him and not even warning them about that was _seriously_ out of line. "We almost became one of those sites ourselves, so yes, we did have our taste of what that was like, thank you."

"Alright then," Tsunade said disapprovingly and not entirely convinced. "I can tell this won't really get us anywhere for the time being. Can you at least tell me what kind of shinobi you saw?"

"Oto fugitives, mostly," Sakura answered immediately, trying not let her disdain for her master show at the moment. "Some Kusa, some Taki. One out of Ame, for whatever reason." She did not like the grave look Tsunade and Jiraiya exchanged at that.

"One last thing," Jiraiya demanded. "What tipped you off regarding the connection between this mission and the organization?"

"Sasuke had it all figured out by the time we left this building," Sakura answered dutifully. "Your reactions when accidentally mentioning his brother made him suspicious."

"It did?" Naruto asked. "Do you guys ever tell me _anything_?"

"We didn't tell you because up to this point I thought it was all in Sasuke's head and we wouldn't be recklessly endangered like that, especially you," Sakura explained impatiently. "It seems like I was wrong and I apologize."

"I had superior knowledge," Sasuke added. "But I wasn't completely sure until we found Kakashi."

"Ah, that genjutsu he's under shock from," Tsunade concluded. "Did you guys break it?"

"Yes," Sakura said briefly and dismissively. The less asked about that topic, the better.

"Well, good call on your part," Tsunade then said to Jiraiya and extended her fist in his general direction. Jiraiya eyed her with bewilderment.

"I'm not fist bumping you, I'm still pissed," he then said dryly. Tsunade rolled her eyes.

"So what kind of genjutsu was it?" She asked instead. Sakura swallowed. Well, this was awkward. Hopefully the unspoken agreement not to give too much away had gotten to both of them...

"It looked like a Tsukiyomi," Sasuke answered. "The same color scheme, the same way of showing events. Just that it had no set time frame and was set up as an infinite loop."

"Interesting," Tsunade commented. "Out of curiosity, what did you see?"

"Battle scenes," Sasuke answered immediately. "Footage from the war, as far as we could tell. I'd get him treated for PTSD if I were you.”

Tsunade sighed deeply and started massaging her temples.

"Boy, if I had any shrinks to spare, I'd throw them at you," she said after a moment. "That will be all for today, dismissed."

 

They stood around together a little awkwardly in front of the administrative building. Sakura felt like she needed to say something, thank the boys for their cooperation, commend Sasuke for lying and not actually lying, or voice her relief that they now all apparently had each other’s backs, at least in this, but somehow... That all seemed both unnecessary and like an understatement at the same time.

"So..." Naruto carefully said after a while. "Uh... That sucked."

"I can't believe she actually did this," Sakura muttered in agreement. "But, uh, good reaction, all of you."

"Of course she did," Sasuke scoffed. "She was right, we do get the job done and are tough to kill, and if the people Kakashi was after were still around, well, four corpses are easier to find than one, and they'd have information on who they're dealing with after that. It's a win-win situation for the village."

"Ugh," Sakura made in disgust. "And she does have another point; it still wasn't sending an unexperienced team with too many tensions and an absent sensei directly into the amassed forces of the enemy unprepared." Both boys looked at her as if she'd lost her mind. "What?" She defended herself. "We're plenty experienced and were at least somewhat prepared for the enemies we faced, that's totally different."

"Yeah, about that..." Naruto trailed off. "Uhm... About that thing that we never saw... The... sensei... He did look kind of familiar, didn't he?"

Sakura rolled her eyes.

"That's because his head is staring down at us right now," she reminded Naruto and pointed at it. "Right there. Guy on the very right, left of Tsunade-sama. Is that familiar enough for you?"

"No, I mean he looked like me!" Naruto clarified. "Like, a whole damn lot, don't you think?"

"He had spiky hair, from what we could tell," Sakura recounted. "So has Sasuke. Or Kakashi-sensei. Or Kiba. Or Shikamaru. Or about half the people in this village."

"What was his hair color, then?" Naruto asked. "Do you know that?"

"Blond, on the pictures in our books," Sakura answered immediately, and then rolled her eyes at Naruto's triumphant grin. "Oh please, all of Ino's family has blond hair and blue eyes, have you ever looked for long-lost relatives there?"

"But he looks just like me!" Naruto defended himself. "I mean, not like we were cloned, that'd be creepy, but he does! And also, he's about the right age to be my dad without it being creepy, right? And do we know how he died?"

"In the attack of the giant fox fourteen years ago," Sakura again answered immediately before considering what her words might lead Naruto to think. Stupid test reflexes. "And I know that coincides with your birthday and all, but... Isn't that just a little _too_ convenient?"

“Yeah, right.” Naruto answered, sounding unconvinced and looking sterner now.

“I’ve seen him before.” Sasuke suddenly told them from the front. Sakura just pointed at the giant head behind them again, but Sasuke waved her off. "I mean in color. There's... Something I need to show you."

"Well that's not ominous at all," Naruto said grimly. "What is it?"

"I'd have to go look for it first," Sasuke evaded the question. "Give me an hour."

"Well, we do have a dinner appointment with my mother in an hour," Sakura reminded them. "So let's all get a little less grimy and a little more human-looking and meet back at my place then."

With a grim nod that was usually only something Sasuke would do, both of her boys went off. Well, they were functional as a team finally, but Sakura wasn't exactly sure if grumpy Naruto was the right price to pay for that...

 

 

 

* * *

 

Her mom was ecstatic at the prospect of providing a troubled little girl that had known nothing but hardship her whole life a new home. Sakura hadn't expected anything less; they _did_ have a bedroom to spare, after all, and her mom was eager for more company, and also for Sakura to hang out with girls more. Sakura failed to mention that Karin was about as unpleasant as they came, especially since the girl seemed to be intent to form some kind of rivalry with her. Well, not some kind. This was about Sasuke and Sakura being in a team with him and all that and also the stupid things Naruto had said. Nothing Sakura wasn't used to; none of the girls from her academy class ever spoke to her again after getting on a team with Sasuke on graduation, except for Ino when she had to and Hinata when she was actually talking. More recent interactions notwithstanding, of course.

Sakura's mom also showed admirable restraint when it came to preparing dinner; no plethora of fine, delicate dishes to impress her guests, but a very simple, balanced and nourishing meal of rice, chicken and vegetables, which was about all they were able to appreciate after having lived off round food and soldier pills for almost two weeks. Her mother also thankfully made absolutely no attempts to engage them in conversation or try to lift the mood, which wasn't bad, per se, but... Tense, in a way.

"Would you children like some dessert?" Her mother asked after all the dishes were cleared. They hadn't left a single grain of rice behind.

"Yes please!" Naruto said who got immediately more cheerful when talking to her mom. "Your food is amazing, have I mentioned that?"

"On occasion," her mother said with a smile and got up. "I'll prepare some tea for you all while I'm at it."

"Don't exert yourself on our behalf," Sasuke said, and immediately looked disturbed that he did so, but his demeanor also got infinitely kinder when he was talking to her mother, Sakura had noticed. At least the boys were now able to talk to her at all, though, and not just gape like at the time when she'd come around while they were training.

"It is no trouble at all," her mother assured him. "You must be positively famished! It's such a shame they send out people so young to do such dangerous work..." And she was off to the kitchen.

"My mom is a little... special," Sakura half-heartedly explained.

"Okay..." Naruto said, stretching the word for all it was worth. "So... I've been thinking..."

"Impressive," Sasuke interjected, though not as maliciously as he used to. Naruto glared at him only half-heartedly in response.

"In any case," he continued. "So... what do you guys think Kakashi-sensei did to piss of the authorities that much?"

"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"Like, us," Naruto answered waving his arms around in an attempt to make himself clearer. A failed attempt. "I mean, he got a team with a healer, who's also the smart one, an Uchiha with a stick up his ass, and, uh, someone like... Me. I mean... Do you get what I mean?"

"Well, to be fair, I wasn't exactly a healer back then..." Sakura reminded him. Sasuke snorted.

"You were good with written tests, the theoretical aspects of everything and had precise chakra control," he pointed out. "There's not much else you can do with that, really."

"Well, thanks so much for that little confidence boost," Sakura sighed and rolled her eyes. "But yeah, I get your point, Naruto. It's... Insensitive, to say the least."

"So these guys were eerily like us, right?" Naruto continued. "We can all agree on that?"

"To an extent," Sasuke admitted.

"Some more than others," Sakura added and shuddered again at the memory of Rin.

"Like, down to... Uh... personal stuff," Naruto felt the need to add. Sakura sighed, Sasuke just rolled his eyes.

"To an extent," Sakura then admitted. Sasuke looked at her in annoyance.

"And some more than others," he added, rolling his eyes again. "Yes, that. What of it?"

"You guys are... Getting weird," Naruto noted. "Anyways, not my point, uhm..." He turned somber again. "I, uh... I want you to promise me that we will never end up that way, okay?"

"What, dead?" Sasuke asked. "Yes, let’s avoid that."

"Unless we keep getting thrown into things too big for us," Sakura reminded them. "I mean, we do have a tendency to get through everything, but, uh, it's basically tempting fate at this point... I for my part can promise that I'll try my hardest not to get kidnapped any time soon and will not run anyone through with fancy attacks. Is that enough?"

"You keep being upset about the whole kidnapping deal," Naruto noted. "Like, it wasn't the girl's fault she got kidnapped, was it?"

"No, not really," Sakura sighed. "It's more... systemic than that. It was the correlation of having someone who's trained to heal instead of fighting in a team like this to begin with. It's also a testament to the times after Tsunade-sama left the village where they stopped teaching their healers basic defense skills. And finally, even if the personnel situation was extremely bad, there had to have been more experienced people around to do the mission than her and this Obito guy. They were clearly in over their heads, which they are not to blame for. It's the shitty system, not a personal failure on their part."

"And also Kakashi-sensei was kind of an ass in that situation," Naruto added. "I mean, had he just cooperated from the beginning, they could have come up with a better plan and all that, but... That wasn't really my point."

"Then spit it out already," Sasuke groaned.

"Okay, my point is," Naruto started over. "I'm sorry for being such a dick throughout the mission. I'm so, _so_ sorry, I don't know what got into me! I mean, you guys were annoying as hell and all that, but, uh, yeah. I think I was the worst. And, you know, seeing what happened to _them_ just because they couldn't get their act together made me realize... Like... Ugh, I'm just sorry, okay? Let's not do that again."

"I couldn't agree more," Sakura said and patted Naruto on the shoulder. "And don't worry about it anymore, you had a few off days, I get it. We all can be very difficult to deal with at times." She threw a very pointed glance at Sasuke. "And now more than ever it's important we stick together, considering how Tsunade is into reckless endangerment at the moment and there's an organization after you for some reason. So we need to be extra careful now." She paused a bit, glancing at Sasuke again. "Well, and also, keeping you save from these people will probably sooner or late get you into the vicinity of Sasuke's brother no matter what we do, so it seems all our interests are aligning for now."

"We've been in the vicinity of my brother twice now," Sasuke said in a low voice. "First the person who burned Kabuto had his powers, and then whoever cast the genjutsu on Kakashi needs to have had the same powers. These powers are linked to the Sharingan. It's not like there's anyone else out there who has them."

"So you agree?" Sakura concluded carefully, offering him a small smile. Sasuke's expression turned a little more grim.

"We broke out of a _Tsukiyomi_ ," he reminded them. "We did that. Together. So yes, our interests do align for the moment, so stop being melodramatic.”

"You keep saying that like it's such a big deal," Naruto noticed. "You also turned kind of crazy after we did that, so, like, is it?"

" _Yes_ ," Sasuke hissed. "It should technically be impossible, but we did it, and..." He stopped himself there.

"You've been in one before, haven't you?" Sakura asked carefully since the topic obviously stirred something in Sasuke. Sasuke avoided their gaze for a bit and stared at his hands on the table.

"He used it to show me how he killed our clan," he then said quietly. "Again, and again... On two different occasions, and it lasted for seventy-two hours, and I couldn’t do _anything_ to stop it, so..."

Sakura gasped in horror and Naruto muttered a curse.

"That's... I can't even..." Naruto then stuttered, while Sakura involuntarily reached over the table and took Sasuke's hand in hers.

"Why would he _do_ that?" She asked, horrified. Sasuke grunted and drew back his hands.

"No idea," he said after a while and looked away.

That left them with an uncomfortable silence.

"The tea is ready!" Sakura's mom then announced from the kitchen, just as the silence had been going on for a little too long. Sakura got the impression that the tea had been ready for some time but her mom didn't want to interrupt their conversation. She did stuff like that a lot.

"Thank you, I'll get it," Sakura said, stood up and hurried into the kitchen, passing her mother on the way who was already carrying two cups.

"You can get the third cup and the dango, if you would," her mom told her over her shoulder.

'The dango' was kind of an understatement; from somewhere, her mother had procured an entire platter full of skewers of sweets so heavy, she couldn't have handled it with only one hand just two years ago. Wow, she should go on long term missions more often, usually her mom didn't appreciate Sakura's passion for sweets. Even if it would never, ever show on her body due to way too much exercise, something about the consumption of sweets had always struck her mother the wrong way. Well... She did have a very good inkling what that might have been.

"I'll let you children talk, then," she heard her mom say in her most pleasant hostess voice when she returned to the dining room. "You seem to have a lot to discuss." And with that and a bow, her mother retired to the living room.

"Did she just _bow_?" Naruto asked, his mouth wide open.

"She has a thing with guests," Sakura explained as briefly as she could. It was kind of an understatement. "In any case, Sasuke, you wanted to show us something?"

She set down the platter of dango on the table and helped herself to one immediately. Sasuke nodded and reached into his back pocket, pulling out an old photograph for them to look at.

“Okay…” Sakura said slowly and incredulously, careful not to choke on her treat while looking at three young adults smiling into the camera, a man and two women. “That definitely is the Yondaime.”

“And that’s your mom?” Naruto asked Sasuke and pointed at one of the women who looked exactly like Sasuke with long hair and more feminine features. “She kinda looks like Sakura-chan. And Hinata-chan. At the same time. Weird.”

“That’s just the haircut.” Sakura dismissed this notion.

“Yeah,” Sasuke agreed. “If anything, Sakura looks more like the other woman in the picture.”

“That’s just the hair color!” Sakura denied. The other woman had seriously long, bright red hair. “And that makes her look more like Karin, anyways.”

“Uhm, guys?” Naruto interrupted. “Could we maybe leave that alone and talk about the issue at hand?”

The issue at hand in his regard was most likely that the Yondaime really looked like a spitting image of Naruto, albeit with longer hair and sharper features. He had his arm wrapped around the young woman with freakishly long, red hair and soft, round features, and who was gleefully hugging an even younger woman who they had identified as Sasuke's mother; she sported the same kind of hime-cut Sakura had had when she’d kept her hair long, and that Hinata was slowly growing into.

“Where did you even get that?” Sakura asked Sasuke. He shrugged.

“It used to stand on my mother’s nightstand,” he said.

“So it was confiscated,” Sakura concluded.

“Yes.”

“So you stole state property.”

“It’s my property,” Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes, his voice dangerously close to a hiss, but Naruto interrupted them again before the situation could escalate.

“Guys!” He insisted. “This guy could be my dad! Like, seriously!”

“Just because you happen to share the same hair and eye color…” Sakura repeated, even though she was starting to waver in her conviction after seeing the guy in color and next to that red haired woman.

“Your mom never told you anything about this picture?” Naruto asked Sasuke.

“She said they were old friends,” Sasuke answered. “Nothing else.”

“So… Who’s that woman?” Naruto asked, staring intently at the picture.

“Well…” Sakura said, brushing through her hair insecurely. “While I still think this is all way too convenient, if we’re going by the notion that the Yodaime is your father, I guess she’s… your mother? You kinda look like her. Your features are very alike.”

“Nobody ever told me anything about my mom, either,” Naruto muttered, sort of repeating himself from earlier. “I mean, she’s probably dead, and I don’t have any memories…”

“Okay,” Sakura said, taking a deep breath. “Please, don’t get ahead of yourself. I know it seems obvious, and I know you really want to know… But if you get all excited now, it’ll just hurt more if we find out these people are not your parents, okay?”

“Does that mean you wanna look into it?” Naruto surprisingly quickly picked up her meaning.

“I’ll try,” Sakura promised. “And unlike the two of you, I have legal access to a bunch of sealed records.” She mulled this over for a minute. “If I’m nice to Tsunade for a week and we invest in some sake, I might get access to even more than I already have… Like, banned books and that sort of stuff…”

“What do you want with books?” Naruto asked confusedly. “I don’t think people wrote books about me! I mean, wouldn’t they have to talk to me to do that?”

“Not about you, silly,” Sakura chuckled. “But about the Yondaime, probably. I also might look into your name a bit. I mean, your last name is definitely not from around here, so maybe that’ll give me something…”

“You’re awesome!” Naruto declared and hugged her enthusiastically.

“Uhm, yeah, thanks,” Sakura managed while being almost squeezed to death by his bear hug. “You can let go now! Though, wait a minute… Can we hold that pose until Karin gets here? That might get her off my back…”

“Nah, I’d crush you,” Naruto said and let her go. “But I can hug you again when she shows up, no problem!”

“That will definitely not cause you trouble with anyone else if word gets out,” Sasuke remarked dryly. Sakura almost choked.

“Yeah. Okay. Point. Whatever,” she admitted. “No emergency hugs, Naruto, but thanks for the offer.”

“Aaaw!” Naruto apparently felt the need to sound disappointed. “What kind of trouble?”

“So, if these people really are your parents, isn’t that a little creepy?” Sakura subtly changed the topic and diligently ignored Sasuke’s snorting at that. “I mean, that means your parents were really close friends…”

“And then they put us on a team together!” Naruto moaned. “I mean, you guys are awesome, but come on! If I’m really the son of Kakashi-sensei’s sensei, and Teme here is the son of their best friends, and you are a Healer, why does this sound like a horrible idea?”

“Well…” Sakura said. “Uhm. Maybe your parents wanted you two to be in a team together… Or… People put you together because of that connection between your parents… Or…”

“Eew, that just makes it creepier!” Naruto shrieked in disgust and moved away from her.

“Then be glad you weren’t born a girl,” Sakura noted. “Because then the ship would sail right to creepy town…”

That left them all, but particularly the boys, in a stunned silence for a while. A very awkward silence during which they didn’t dare to look at each other. It was yet again broken by the sudden appearance of her mother, who seemed to be able to smell awkward silences. Or was eavesdropping. But that didn't seem like her mom at all.

“Sakura, when did you say that other girl was moving in?” She asked and peeked over her shoulder. “Oh, what do you have there?”

“Just an old picture,” Sakura said and helped herself to another skewer of dango.

“Oh, I know these people!” Her mother then exclaimed and gently took the photo from Naruto’s hands.

“Of course you do, that’s the fourth Hokage,” Sakura muttered under her breath.

“Yes, yes, and I even spoke to him a few times,” Her mother agreed. “He was the one who let us into the village in the first place, even though his friend didn’t want to at first… Now who was he again… An Uchiha, of course, there always was a member of the police force at the gates back in the day…” While she mulled this over, Sakura, Sasuke and Naruto exchanged uncomfortable glances.

“Oh, I don’t quite recall his name, but I do remember he was married to this young girl…” Her mother pointed at the photo and then looked at Sasuke. “She was your mother, right?”

Sasuke nodded curtly.

“Of course, I never had anything to do with the Uchihas other than while getting into the village,” she continued. “But I occasionally saw them at official events… “She got lost in thought for a while, and then shook her head. “But dear, what I meant to tell you was about the Yondaime, right? Did you know he is the reason I enrolled you in the Ninja academy to begin with?”

“…What?” Sakura asked, trying her hardest not to have her jaw drop too far, since Naruto already had that covered.

“Yes, yes, you know, after your father… left…” Her mother paused here uncomfortably and cleared her throat. “Well, Namikaze-sama came to visit me personally. You see, without your father I had no form of income, so he promised the village would pay for all our expenses if I’d make you a ninja. I think he offered that to all of the war orphans, too…”

“So you’re saying my dad is the reason Sakura-chan is a ninja?” Naruto asked.

Sakura’s mother blinked, taken aback.

“No, I did not say that,” she then denied stiffly. “I said the fourth Hokage is the reason she became a ninja. I do not know anything about your parents. Now, if you’d be so kind to excuse me, I have… A lot to do.” She returned the photo to Naruto and went back to the kitchen.

“Riight.” Naruto muttered under his breath and grinned widely. Then he mischievously poked Sakura in the side. “She so knows the Yondaime is actually my dad. And which ship is sailing to creepy town now, huh?”

“All of them”, Sakura said and shuddered. “All of them forever.”

They fell into yet another uncomfortable silence for a bit, and Naruto, who seemed especially uncomfortable, was still holding the old picture and kept glancing at Sasuke, who rolled his eyes in annoyance.

“Spit it out, moron,” he then demanded after a while, crossing his arms.

“Uhm…” Naruto nervously fiddled with his feet under the table. “Could I… maybe… Like… Keep the picture?” He then asked, without looking at Sasuke. Sakura, who was watching intently, noticed how Sasuke stiffened at this request. She also saw how he narrowed his eyes defiantly, glaring at Naruto, who was still not looking at him. Sakura was about to carefully chime in on Naruto’s behalf, when she saw something set in Sasuke’s jaw, much in the same way as when he had given up on potentially chasing after Itachi in favor of completing their mission and not strangling Karin to death, and then he rolled his eyes and looked away himself.

“Whatever,” he just said, glaring at nothing in particular and very decidedly ignoring the look of utter relief and bliss on Naruto's face that he had caused with that simple statement. Or the fact that Sakura just had to stare at the scene, and particularly him. He had been... Sort of nice in a roundabout way recently, sure, but this... This obviously meant so much to Naruto, and Sasuke was giving away a picture _of his mother_ for him... That was so... Unlike the person she had been around the last few weeks, Sakura almost choked up, which would have annoyed her hadn't she been so happy with this new development. Sasuke was actually being nice for a change. And Naruto was happy again, which was also one hell of a relief after seeing him during the mission. And for a moment, just for a tiny little moment, everything seemed to be perfect. Then Sakura recalled that she'd probably have to break his heart sooner or later, as she was quite sure that her research into these people and Naruto's family connections wouldn't amount to anything. No matter how weirdly her mother had reacted or how convenient it all seemed, Naruto being related to the legendary Yondaime would be just too big of a secret to cover up, wouldn't it? Surely, the whole village would have known if their Hokage had had a son underway before dying, and she was pretty sure she never even read about the Fourth having a wife, or a girlfriend for that matter. All information she had on him was about his prowess in battle, the whole yellow flash thing (which she now didn't find even half as impressive anymore, considering how he hadn't used it to save his team or whatever had gone wrong there). She faintly ignored the gnawing suspicion she'd also have to break his heart in another way. That was a mental discussion for another time. And also, the doorbell rang.

"Oh, that's her, isn't it?" Her mother asked excitedly as she hurried to answer the door like she had just won in the lottery or something.

"Good evening!" She heard Karin say as her mother opened the door, the change in volume implying that she bowed while doing so. "You must be Haruno Megumi-san, right? Thank you _so much_ for taking me in, I would have nowhere to go without your kindness!"

She was using the most saccharine tone Sakura had ever heard on her, even sweeter than when she was talking to Sasuke. Sweet enough, in fact, to be serious competition to Ino in that regard. Sakura exchanged an uncomfortable glance with Naruto, who grinned brightly.

"Guess that's our cue to leave," he noted. "Or would you like to spend some more time with her, teme?"

Sasuke threw him his most vicious glare of the day and got up without another word. Naruto just laughed so carefree it almost broke Sakura's heart (in another manner entirely), took a skewer of dango from the plate and got up with him.

"Oh, it is my pleasure!" Sakura's mother was meanwhile eager to assure her new guest. "Please, please come in and make yourself comfortable, I saved some dinner for you. Or would you like to have tea and eat dango with us first?"

"Go for the dinner," Naruto advised her in passing. "Which was awesome, by the way, thank you so much!" He then said to Sakura's mom and bowed as well, which was very unlike him, but apparently something he had picked up while spending time in the house. Sasuke nodded just deep enough that it might count as a bow, completely ignoring Karin's excited gasp upon seeing him, and left with Naruto.

"I would like some dinner," Karin then said. "If it isn't too much trouble..."

"Oh, not at all, my dear!" Sakura's mother assured her. "Sakura would you get a plate ready for her, please?"

"Of course," Sakura sighed and went to the kitchen, completely ignoring the sort of triumphant look Karin gave her as well. Karin could be nasty to her if she wanted to, and Sakura was fairly sure she did, but she had handled worse. She _did_ feel sorry for the other girl, after all, and well... As long as she was nice to her mother, Sakura was okay with another complication in her life. At least her mom was happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize this is where things get a little very non-canon compliant when it comes to the backstory. A backstory I have worked out in my head years ago, and since canon didn't really disprove it... Eeeh, just go with lucky coincidences for now, okay? I always did find it ridiculous that they covered up Naruto's parentage to everyone, or everyone just failed to talk about it. I mean, public figure looking exactly like him and dying on the day he was born? Even though Naruto looked way older than a newborn and wasn't remotely purple enough for that... Well, at least he looked like something you'd actually have to labor for to get out of you, and not like Gaara as a baby who was so tiny, it's hard to believe getting him out took any effort at all... Well, and isn't that a tasteful tangent to go off on. 
> 
> In any case, I hope you enjoyed more talking. In two weeks, Tenten is back! And Ino! And Hinata! And paperwork! All of the excitement.


	16. Tongue Tied

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter features lots of girls being mean to each other, Sakura digging through paperwork and explaining how blood types work, weird hints about Karin's potential past, tea being used like alcohol, and close to no plot whatsoever. Also, the total amount of male characters appearing is two, and after a few chapters of barely passing the usual thing, this one decisively fails the reverse Bechdel test. Take that as positively or negatively as you like. 
> 
> Alternative titles would be "Can We Not" and "Holy Internalized Misogyny Batman", but those aren't song titles yet. I think. Somebody should change that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...And that summary just outed me as a tumblr user, didn't it? Well, I totally am. Not much of a Naruto blogger, but feel free to look for a Vohalika there! Sometimes I reblog fun things. 
> 
> Posting this a little early because I have an exam on Monday evening and already wasted all of Saturday doing absolutely nothing, so now I won't have this looming over my head to distract me, and maybe some comments flying in to keep me motivated. Look at that, subtlety is me. I should not be talking to people at 4AM. Anyways, enjoy!

**16\. Tongue Tied**

Sakura woke up to the sound of her mother's voice.

"Wake up, girls!" She called in the little landing between the three bedrooms and the bathroom upstairs. "Breakfast is ready!"

Wait, girls? Did she have a sister all of a sudden? Her questions were answered when she sleepily opened the door and was greeted by a girl her age with bright red hair and glasses, throwing her a smile so self-satisfied it set off all her inner alarms. Oh right, she had taken in Karin to stay at her home since her mom would welcome the company and the other girl had nowhere to go. That happened. And over the course of this monologue, Sakura missed the way Karin moved in front of her towards the stairs and kicked open the bathroom door as she went, which would have hit Sakura right in the face, had her instincts not woken up before she did. She almost punched through the door before remembering that no, bathroom door good, no property damage allowed at home, so she blocked it with her forearm instead, which still hurt.

"...Seriously?" Sakura muttered to herself after she closed the door again and went down the stairs after Karin. She was used to mean comments and stuff, but usually, the girls who hated her didn't live with her, too, or tried to hit her with fucking doors to the face. And she had previously thought they also might just have a little more dignity than that.

Shaking her head, Sakura made her way down the stairs to find Karin busy helping her mother set the table. Well, she had to remind herself. As long as Karin was only mean to her and kind to her mom, everything was fine. Her mom had made pancakes, too. Usually she abhorred everything that wasn't traditional in general, and where food was concerned in particular and only made pancakes on special occasions. Karin's first day in their household apparently marked such a special occasion.

"Thank you so much for helping me, Karin-chan!" He mom was just saying.

"Oh, no!" Karin said, apparently flustered. "I have to thank you for letting me stay here, helping where I can is the least I can do, really. And you even cook for me, this is the nicest thing anyone has ever done for me!"

"Oh, you poor dear!" Sakura's mother said, clutching her heart in dismay. Sakura sighed. Yes, Karin was most likely acting, or at least embellishing the truth, but _it made her mother happy_. No need to feel angry about the situation.

"What are your plans for today?" She asked instead. As long as her mother was around, Karin at least would have to give her straight answers if she intended to keep up the nice but troubled little girl act.

"I have to fill out some more paper work and get a physical examination for some reason," Karin indeed answered, even if her tone got just the slightest bit less saccharine. "Then some sort of interrogation and when they got all that done, it'll probably be tomorrow already and I can go meet that team I'm supposed to accompany through the chuunin exams."

"Do you know which one yet?" Sakura continued, more or less eagerly pursuing the first kind of normal conversation she had ever had with Karin. And probably the only one she would ever have.

"Uh, they said something about it being led by some person called Asuma, I think," Karin answered again. "I'm supposed to meet them at some sort of training grounds tomorrow, but I already forgot the number and have no clue how to get there anyway."

"Ah, yeah, that makes sense," Sakura said. "They had a member promoted almost two years ago when we all participated for the first time. Tell you what, I'll get Ino to pick you up from here tomorrow, she's a member, and uh..." She had been about to say that they were friends, but then caught herself as Karin’s presence had made her question, not for the first time, how accurate that word actually was.

"She's such a nice young lady!" Her mom finished for her. "Ino-chan will surely take good care of you!"

"Yeah, that," Sakura agreed and sighed. "I'm pretty sure she will."

"It's so sad that you two don't spend as much time together anymore," her mom went on. "She had such a good influence on you!"

"Well, we're both busy," Sakura evaded an actual explanation of things that were getting more and more embarrassing for her by the minute. "But I'll stop by her place today and tell her about you, Karin."

"Hm," Karin made, looking skeptical. "And you two are friends?"

"Sort of," Sakura admitted, seriously uncomfortable. "We kind of... drifted apart after graduation. Very tragic. But she's nice, so don't worry."

"Karin, I've been meaning to ask," her mother changed the topic. Whether she had sensed her daughter being uncomfortable, Sakura wasn't sure. Her mom sometimes had awesome tact, and sometimes she was almost entirely oblivious to what went on with other people around. But from what she could tell, her mother was having one of her better days today. In any case, Sakura was grateful. "You have such pretty hair! Is that your natural color?"

"Thank you!" Karin said eagerly, her sweet tone and smile returning. "And yes it is. I don't know where I got it from, since I don't remember my parents, but it has always been like that." She glanced at Sakura, smile now closer to a sneer. "What about _your_ hair? Did you get that from your dad?"

"Yes," Sakura almost hissed as her mom froze next to her. "Yes, I have. I don't remember him either, and it's also always been like that."

"He looked so... Extraordinary..." Her mother muttered absentmindedly, but with a fond smile. "Well, not around here, of course, people here have just the most exotic hair colors and styles, but back in the day..." She shook her head. "Well, Karin, your hair is very pretty. And so long! A little strange that you cut it only on one side, but I like it, it makes you stick out more."

"You're too kind," Karin assured her, but Sakura could tell the weird mood shift in her mom hadn't escaped the other girl, either, as she seemed to be more on edge.

"Not at all, dear," Sakura's mom said softly. Then she looked at Sakura and turned a little wistful again. "I've been trying to get Sakura to grow her hair out again, but she doesn't want to. She had such pretty, soft and long hair once! But ever since that... Accident, was it?"

"It was a fight, during the exams, and I did it very much on purpose," Sakura reminded her, rolling her eyes.

"Well, ever since then she's kept it short like this," her mother finished. "And I don't know, I think if you have such special hair, you should show it off!"

"My hair shows itself off just fine, mom," Sakura said. On a list of things she didn't like to discuss, her hair was only a little more pleasant than Ino, especially when her mom was involved in the conversation.

"Ino-chan has been growing hers out again, too, right?" Her mom nevertheless continued, now combining the two loathsome subjects for good measure. "She had it short for a while, didn't she? How did that happen?"

"Pretty much the same way," Sakura claimed. "During a fight, and she did it on purpose to lay a trap. And also to imitate me, in a way, but that doesn't matter."

"Well, but her hair is nice and long again!" Her mother went on. "I just saw her at the flower shop the other day... Just think about how long yours could be by now!"

"I think she short hair suits her," Karin, who had finished her breakfast while this conversation had taken place, unexpectedly got involved in the conversation. "It brings out her features."

"Hm, I suppose..." Sakura's mom sighed. "Oh well, it's your hair. Would you like more pancakes?"

"No, thank you very much," Karin answered. "I'm afraid I'll have to leave now, my appointment with the registration office is pretty soon."

"Yeah, me too," Sakura joined her. "I have to go talk to Ino and then assist Tsunade-sama with some paperwork for the rest of the day." She got up, collected the empty plates while Karin was still busy thanking her mother for the food and her mother was busy assuring Karin that that was nothing to thank her for and had been no trouble at all, and carried them into the kitchen. When she returned to the living room, Karin seemed to be in a hurry to get going; apparently being nice to her mom was more time consuming than expected, Sakura mused.

They left the house together, stepping out on the street. It was cloudy out, but the occasional ray of not quite warm yet spring sunshine made its way through. The girls stood together uncomfortably for a moment.

"Try not to mention my dad," Sakura then sighed. "It's... A difficult topic for my mom. He's not around anymore, she doesn't handle that too well, and, yeah..."

"Alright," Karin said, and Sakura noted with something surprisingly close to relief that the other girl was snappish again. "Anything else? Why do you keep looking at me like that?"

"I still can't believe you actually said something nice about me," Sakura said with a smirk. "Well, my hair, but close enough, I guess."

"Well, it _does_ suit you," Karin repeated with just a little more venom in her voice, before attempting to walk away.

"The registration office is that way," Sakura stopped her, however, and pointed into the opposite direction.

"Whatever," Karin now snapped at her for real, changing her course accordingly. "Keep your hair short, it understates your forehead."

"Oh, wow," Sakura said. "The forehead. Haven't gotten that one in a while."

"Really?" Karin asked, feigning surprise. "Well, whatever." She now smirked as well. "Short hair works well for you, in any case." Her voice dripped with sweet, sweet venom again. "And also, just so you know, Sasuke-kun likes girls with _long_ hair. But don't even bother."

"Okay, first of all, I was the one who originally found that out," Sakura said indignantly, trying not to sputter. This was so... She couldn't even... What... Ugh. "And second, don't worry, I won't bother, since what he may or may not like is completely irrelevant to my interests. And third, how the hell did you even find out about that in Oto?"

But Karin had already begun to walk away without another comment. And Sakura couldn't shake off the feeling that the other girl was marking this one as a victory for some reason. Completely unjustified, all things considered, but what did she care? And why did it always have to be her to get into situations like this? Ugh...

 

***

 

"So you picked up some random girl from the street," Ino summarized what Sakura had just told her. "Took her home with you and now she's gonna be my substitute team member for the chuunin exams?"

"Pretty much," Sakura confirmed, trying not to sound too agitated. Something about Karin just riled her up. Well, no, she knew exactly what riled her up about Karin, and that just annoyed her even more. "She's been through a lot and knows absolutely no one around here, save for me, my mom, Naruto und Sasuke. So I was thinking you could maybe pick her up for training tomorrow morning."

"Sure," Ino agreed. "But I have an even better idea. Don't you think we all spend way too little time together?"

That just set off most of Sakura's alarm bells for the second time this morning.

"Uh, yeah, I've been busy, what are you getting at?" She asked carefully.

"Ah, I was just thinking..." Ino trailed off in a way that Sakura knew she did to arouse interest when talking to people who didn't see through her techniques. "Well, you're bringing in this new girl and she needs friends and all that, how about we all meet for tea tonight?"

"...We all?" Sakura echoed. "Just who are you talking about? If you plan another group orgy thing or whatever term we have agreed on, just remember that the tea house owner is not best friends with your sensei, okay?"

"Nah, I was thinking just us girls," Ino clarified, a mischievous grin on her face. "Like a girl's night out or something."

"I think I still need clarification," Sakura said. "Us girls? So you want to invite Hinata along?"

"And Tenten," Ino confirmed. "I'll probably manage to see Hinata today and invite her, so how about you fetch Tenten, since you guys seem to be bffs now?"

"And here I thought you didn't like us getting along," Sakura chuckled. Ino sighed.

"Well, I could go and ask her," she said. "But I get the feeling you'll get to her more than I could. Like, she'll take you more seriously than me. Must be the mannish thing."

"The mannish thing?" Sakura asked dryly. "Wow, first I get a forehead comment again after years, and now what, you point out I developed not-so-girly anatomy? What's next, someone's gonna tell me I punch too hard?"

"Who insulted your forehead?" Ino asked sharply, to Sakura's surprised.

"The new girl, Karin," she answered carefully. "She, ah, doesn't really like me, you know?"

"But she lives with you!" Ino pointed out, scandalized. Then she blinked a few times, shook her head, and put her sly smile back on. "Well, I guess I like her attitude already. So what about Tenten, are you gonna ask her or not?"

"I still don't see why, but sure, I guess," Sakura said. "So, we'll meet at the usual place? When?"

"Eight pm?" Ino suggested. "I'm pretty sure everyone will be done with dinner and stuff by then."

"Alright, I'll see what I can do," Sakura agreed. "See you tonight, then."

Ino just waved, the weird mischievous grin still on her face. Sakura knew Ino well enough to know that she didn't come up with these kinds of things just for fun, but for the life of her, she couldn't come up with anything Ino might possibly gain from this. And she was pretty sure there was no harm in drinking some tea with the other girls regardless, was there?

 

***

 

Under the guise of organizing old files, Sakura was left alone in the old storage under the Konoha administrative building. Being the Hokage's apprentice and underpaid worker had its advantages. Here, all information on all shinobi who had served within the last twenty years was stored. In her search for Naruto's parents, Sakura started by browsing through everything the archive had to offer on the Yondaime. And even though she now knew everything from his academy grades (slightly above average) to his blood type (B, like Naruto's), there was not a word on his personal life, just that the Namikaze family hadn't been anything of significance before him and died with him. The Yondaime had indeed died on Naruto's birthday, though, when the village had been attacked by a nine-tailed fox. And according to the files stored here, that was really all there had ever been to Konoha's Yellow Flash. No significant others, no siblings, dead parents, nothing. The only thing remotely linking him to Naruto were his appearance, his blood type and the fact that he had also been Jiraiya's student. And Kakashi-sensei’s sensei. And while the latter was just plain weird, like the odd connection between their potential parents they had discovered yesterday, none of it was enough to prove any kind of relation between him and Naruto at all. Blond hair and blood type B were far from uncommon; Tsunade and Ino had both for instance. Kiba, Chouji and Jiraiya also had blood type B. Blood types were really unreliable and could only help to rule out a possible parent-child relationship if you knew the blood types of both parents and the child in question. Blood Type B could be the result of a couple with A and B, A and AB, B and B, AB and B, AB and AB, AB and 0, and B and 0. But even a couple where both parents had blood type B might result in a child with blood type 0, and it was all very confusing and completely unreliable.

Sakura sighed and made sure to correctly sort in everything she had been able to dig up about the Yondaime. Maybe looking at some gossip magazines from fourteen years ago would have been more fruitful, all things considered. Then she could have looked through them for rumors of the Yondaime dating anyone and then looked through all the possible women these magazines had been able to come up with, and check them for their looks and family and blood types to make out some possible relation to Naruto to keep him happy. But that would have been working entirely on the hypothesis that the Yondaime _was_ his father, and there was no proof for that. Against her expectations, though, she had also not found any material to rule the Yondaime out as his father.

Her search had started with Naruto's birth certificate, but for some reason, that did not list his parents. At all. Even though at least a mother must have been present during his birth unless he had actually grown from a tree or hatched out of an egg or something, which surely would have been noted _somewhere_. And also he had a belly button. Surrounded by a strange seal, granted, but belly buttons usually did not differ in their origin.

So the only path she could pursue from now on was his last name. The fact that he had a last name at all made clear that he actually had been born in Konoha and of a woman who had had one; had they just found him on a doorstep somewhere, there would be no last name.

Her growling stomach reminded her to start with that after a break, though. And she still had to seek out Tenten and invite her to the little tea party Ino was planning for some reason. So she neatly put back all her research material to where she had found it, sorted in some misplaced files as an alibi to attest to her actually working, and left the archive.

 

Out on the street, she grabbed a melonpan for lunch after checking the training ground assignments for the day. Team Gai had one booked until in a few minutes, so she might catch Tenten there. Good thing, too, since she had absolutely no clue where the other girl lived or spent her time or whatever, only that they were now some weird kind of friends who casually insulted each other or something. Dealing with other girls had never, ever been her strong-suit, all things considered. Ino had been pretty much her only friend, and every friend she'd had after her and before graduation had been girls she knew through Ino, and they'd all sided with Ino after Sakura had declared their friendship over. The more she thought about this, the weirder it seemed. Just... Giving up a friend over something like a crush on the same boy? Not that she felt entirely comfortable making light of her feelings now, but back then... Well, granted, it also had been just a little bit about stepping out of Ino's shadow at the time, since, well, that's what she had been at that point. Ino's shadow. Always behind her, always around her, nothing without her.

Well, she was trying to change that now, and Ino was coming around, but ugh. Things were so weird. And then there was Tenten, who just seemed so... _Beyond_ everything.

"Good day, Sakura-san!" Her inner monologue that had carried her over to the training grounds was promptly interrupted. In front of her stood Lee. Well, standing on his hands, actually. One hand, as he used the other hand to wave at her.

"Hello, Lee-kun," she greeted him back and smiled. His good mood and enthusiasm were always contagious. "Are you done with training for the day?"

"Not quite!" He answered excitedly. "Gai-sensei and I are having a race around the village on our hands!"

"Oh, then I'm sorry for keeping you," Sakura said and stepped aside. "Say, is Tenten still around or has she already left?"

"Tenten-san should still be at the training grounds," Lee answered. "She usually stays behind a bit to polish her weapons and seal them back into her scrolls." He shifted his weight from hand to hand. "But I must be on my way, farewell, Sakura-san!" And with that, he was off. Sakura chuckled to herself. Yeah, brief encounters with Lee did wonders for one's mood.

As she came closer to the training ground Team Gai usually occupied, she heard loud laughter that was unmistakably Tenten's. Tenten had a way of laughing way too loud, just slightly shy of a snort and without any inhibitions at all. And once Sakura could actually see her, she observed as Tenten was still shaken by laughter, bent over and leaning onto Neji with an outstretched arm for support. After calming down a bit, she bent up again and punched Neji in the shoulder.

"You cannot be serious!" Tenten exclaimed.

"You have a visitor," Neji said instead of a response and nodded at Sakura who was approaching from behind him.

"Oh hi, Haruno!" Tenten greeted her. "But I'm not so sure; she could totally be here for you."

"I do not think so," Neji replied flatly.

"Well, what brings you here?" Tenten then asked Sakura directly. "Did Naruto finally dare to defend himself when Hinata attacks and she now needs to be carried home?"

"...Wait, what?" Sakura asked in confusion. "Uh, we're not training together today, but... He doesn't defend himself against her?"

"Not as much as he should," Neji clarified. "He tries not to hurt her, and she can tell."

"Wow," Sakura said, a little stunned. "He's usually not the type to hold back..."

"Tell her that," Tenten suggested. "Make her day, or something."

"As if she needs to feel more fragile," Neji scoffed.

"Yeah, seriously," Sakura agreed. "I'm going to have a talk about this with him. I mean, I don't know if we're going to train together with Hinata and her team again, but that's seriously not okay."

"Says the one who was upset about getting beaten in sparring just a month ago," Tenten pointed out with a smirk. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"That was a month ago, doesn't really happen anymore, and I was angry at myself for not being better, not at them for not holding back, since that would have been insulting as hell," she clarified unperturbed. "In any case, I _am_ here to talk to you, Tenten."

Upon hearing that, Neji nodded at both of them and left. Sakura looked at him, confused some more.

"You don't actually have to leave," she said. "I don't want to send you away or anything, this isn't exactly private."

"Ah, leave him be," Tenten waved her concerns off. "He's not comfortable around people too much, period. So what made you seek me out?"

"Ino, actually," Sakura answered truthfully.

"Well, that can't be good," Tenten remarked. "And also, really? You don't just visit me because you miss my awesomeness? I don't think our epic friendship can work that way."

"I'm so sorry," Sakura said, clutching her heart for emphasize. "I've just been so horribly busy lately, but I swear I'll pay more attention to you some time soon. Like, maybe after the exams are over. You _are_ participating again, aren't you?"

"Yeah, we are," Tenten answered and picked up a naginata from the floor to start polishing it. "About time, really. We've been trying to get Gai-sensei to let us take it again last time, but uh, he insisted Lee wasn't recovered enough yet and also we had to be careful about moving around too much, since the last exams were held in Kiri or something."

"Kumo, actually," Sakura corrected. "I held Tsunade's hand while she wrote the note declaring no Konoha shinobi would participate due to internal matters. Truth is, Kumo used to be associated with Iwa and they're still sort of tight or something, and that's why we just boycott them when we can."

"Yeah, Iwa sucks," Tenten declared. "I mean, that's what they tell us, anyways. Everything evil is from Iwa, everything creepy and counterproductive is from Kiri."

"Kiri had plenty of evil periods, too," Sakura informed her. "They were just hidden in all the creepy."

"So while we're at evil and creepy, what's this about Ino?" Tenten tried picking up the conversation where they had left it. Sakura laughed.

"That was mean," she chuckled. "Ino is only occasionally creepy, and not at all evil. Just manipulative and diabolical. Oh god what have I done," she added just as she realized something.

"Uh, a general account of all your actions since I have known you or just now that may have made you come to a realization?" Tenten asked her to specify. "The former could take some time, the latter, I have no clue."

"Ugh," Sakura groaned. "Well, short version. While we were out on a super secret special mission, we picked up a girl from the street. She's been through some shit, spent some time with Orochimaru and then was used by some loyalists to track us down, twice, blah. Well we felt sorry for her and she has crazy accurate sensor powers, so we took her here with us and she's now living with me."

"Just so you know," Tenten interrupted her here. "People are not pets. And just because Kiba does it and it worked out well for him doesn't mean you have to adopt everything you find on the road."

"Oh wow you are so clever," Sakura remarked, rolling her eyes. "Thing is, she was assigned to Ino's team to fill the gap Shikamaru left when he was the only one getting promoted. And since she, Karin's her name by the way, well she's all new, Ino figured we should have some sort of girl's night out or whatever to introduce her to everyone. Everyone female. In our sort of group. I think."

"So it's gonna be Ino, Hinata, the new girl, you, and me," Tenten summarized. "Well, that's gonna give her one hell of an impression of Konoha people."

"It was Ino's idea and I think some socialization would do Karin some good," Sakura sighed. "Well, being around people who are not in direct power over her and who she doesn't have to manipulate. Thing is, she gets nasty around people she doesn't need to manipulate. Or maybe just around Naruto and me, my reference pool is kind of small so far."

"So is it just the two of you now?" Tenten asked in fake astonishment. "Has Uchiha been kidnapped again, or something? Because I for sure won't participate in a war to get his ass back here another time."

"That was not what the war was about," Sakura corrected, rolling her eyes. "And no, he's still with us, and he's getting more cooperative every day. The thing is... Karin, ah..."

"Turns into a mindless drone when she sees him?" Tenten finished for her. "So I guess not even the girls in Oto were save. Well then, have fun with her."

"Oh, trust me, I have," Sakura muttered. "The only time I can talk to her is when my mom is present, since then she's on her best behavior because my mom is the one who owns the house. Or when people like Tsunade are present, because Tsunade could just set her out on the street again. Any other context, and the only way to get a straight answer out of her is to have Sasuke ask, or have Sasuke order her to answer, and he tries to avoid any and all communication with her, which I can't really blame him for."

"Have you tried telling her you're not interested?" Tenten asked, setting aside her polished naginata and moving on to a batch of kunai for cleaning.

"I can't," Sakura groaned. "Naruto fucked it up just after we met her when he told her we could bond over a shared taste in men or something like that, so no matter what I say, she wouldn't believe me anyways."

"Well, that sucks," Tenten concluded. "And you want us all to meet her?"

"No, Ino wanted that," Sakura reminded her. "I just wanted Ino to take care of her."

"...In the hope that two negatives will make a positive?" Tenten asked mockingly. "Yeah, those two are going to be great around each other, I can tell."

"And that's what just hit me," Sakura brought this conversation full circle, massaging her temples in advance. "Either they're going to kill each other by the end of the week, or team up against me. I'm not exactly sure what's more probable at this point."

"Huh," Tenten made, lost in thought for a moment. "Want to bet on it?"

"Oh no, no, no," Sakura declined immediately. "I'm not even gonna start with that bullshit. The only person I'll ever bet against is Tsunade, and that's just because it's the only way to get her to do any work when the drinking gets bad."

"Look at you, revealing personal information about our head of state in a public setting," Tenten snorted. "Better be careful with that."

"Eh, that actually neither too personal nor anything to be revealed," Sakura waved off her concerns. "It's basically an open secret at this point. Has been for ages. So don't worry about me."

"Wasn't going to," Tenten said and sealed away the polished weapons around her. "I figured you'd be too smart to say anything incriminating. And if not, well, that's what they call natural selection."

"Indeed," Sakura agreed. "So what about tonight? Are you gonna leave me alone with Ino, Karin and maybe Hinata or can I expect you as back up?"

"Well, it's probably going to be funny as hell to watch you squirm once they get going," Tenten assumed. "So I'm gonna be there, but don't expect me to be much of a back-up."

"Good enough for me," Sakura sighed. "Now if you would excuse me, I have more incriminating things to attend to. We're meeting at eight pm at the tea house basically across from Ino's flower shop."

"Oh, yeah, she likes that place," Tenten remembered.

"She sure does," Sakura sighed. "See you tonight then."

Tenten smirked.

"I can't wait."

 

 

 

* * *

 

Whoever was in charge of tracking down ninja clans and genealogy over the years or just keeping books about who came in and gave birth on Konoha ground was an idiot. Or an asshole. Or had all their work destroyed for some reason. Thusly was Sakura's conclusion after an entire day of looking for clues regarding the last name Uzumaki. There were no records on it, at all. Nobody put anything down about Naruto's birth or mother or distant relatives, and that just seemed very, very fishy to Sakura. Naruto had too much natural talent _not_ to be related to ninjas one way or another. But there was nothing linking him to anyone. There were more records on _her_ and her father than about Naruto, and her dad had been registered as a civilian during the brief time he could be bothered to stay in the village. So what the hell was going on with Naruto's stuff?

This part was even more frustrating than looking through all information available on the Yondaime, since at least that got her results. Out of pure frustration, she spent the last few hours of her workday by actually cleaning up the place and sorting in misplaced files and take stock. It didn't really seem like anything was missing, to be honest. Her plan for the next days was to look through the list of people who died on Naruto's day of birth, even though that might take some time, since his birth coincided with that attack by the nine-tailed fox that had cost many lives. But maybe somewhere between the casualties would be a woman dying from childbirth or something likely, which was probably what had happened to Naruto's mom... Though something about that didn't add up. If they had her in the village long enough to give birth and find out about her last name, couldn't they have entered her first name into the birth certificate or something? The lack of information was enough to make one paranoid. Or, well, even more paranoid than Sakura already was when it came to weird connections between parents and all that.

This didn't exactly improve her mood on her way home. And her mood fell even more when she came home only to find Karin already there and helping her mother cook dinner. Well, actually this should improve her mood, since Karin was still being nice to her mom, but ugh.

"Hey," Sakura greeted them upon entering the kitchen. "Can I help you with something?"

"No, dear," her mother answered, stirring in a pot containing what smelled like oyakodon. The fact that Karin was beating eggs next to her confirmed Sakura's suspicion. "We're almost done, as you can see."

"The rice should be ready, though," Karin added. "You could take care of that."

"Sure," Sakura said and retrieved three bowls from the cupboard to scoop the rice in. "I talked to Ino, by the way."

"Oh, that's wonderful!" Her mother exclaimed. "Will she come pick Karin up tomorrow?"

"Yes, I think so," Sakura answered. "And also, we're supposed to meet her for tea after dinner."

"Tea after dinner?" Her mother asked astonished. "That's... Well..."

"It's not supposed to be a formal affair," Sakura cut her off before she could delve into that. "It's a little get-together, we'll drink a cup of none fancy tea and eat some more dango, and that's all there is to it." She paused. "We can have a proper tea serving if you like, though, when I have the time."

"That would be lovely," her mother said. "Karin, the eggs now, please," she then ordered their houseguest. "Have you ever been served proper tea?"

"Can't say I've ever been quite served anything," Karin replied. "But I'd love to try!" She added with enthusiasm that threw Sakura for a loop as to whether she was faking it to stay in her mother's good graces or whether it was genuine, or both. And also, this exchange just served to remind her again that Karin had been through a lot, and that maybe, just maybe, Sakura should cut her some slack... So what if she was nasty to people who had no authority over her? Probably a survival instinct of sorts. And something that might actually go away once she had gotten used to the fact that she did not have to fight for her survival every second now that she was in Konoha. In fact, she'd probably have a quite comfortable life, as far as ninjas were concerned, considering how she had useful abilities but close to no combat skills. And until that settled in with her and she felt save, Sakura would endure occasionally getting glared at. Yes. And her mom was happy, so it was all worth it. Also, they were still helping Karin. Because someone had to. Now she just needed to write these words down and recall them every time she felt like tearing her own hair out due to dealing with Karin.

 

***

"And why do I have to do this again?" Karin asked in annoyance while walking alongside Sakura to the tea shop where they were supposed to meet the others.

"Because your new teammate invited you to and my mom likes the idea," Sakura answered, the annoyance all hers. "And hey, you get to meet new people, that could be a plus."

"Yeah, a bunch of _girls_." Karin spat out the word with disdain. "I never liked other girls, ugh."

"I won't say I can't relate to the sentiment," Sakura said slowly. "But do you like _anyone_? Besides Sasuke, that is?"

"I liked Orochimaru-sama just fine," Karin spat back. "Until, you know, you guys came around and destroyed everything, thank you very much."

"Well, all things considered, he started it," Sakura half-heartedly tried to argue. "But yeah, I get your point, and you are free to leave whenever and all that, if you'd prefer."

Karin just laughed bitterly.

"Yeah, right," she snorted. "And the minute I set a foot out of this place, you'll either brand me a nuke nin and hunt me down before someone else can use my powers or I'll be at the mercy of some thugs again, _no thank you_. This will do for the time being. And also, for some reason, Sasuke-kun chooses to stay here, so that's good, and has to mean _something_."

"He, ah, doesn't exactly have a choice," Sakura remarked. "He's just as out of options as you are."

"Do you _really_ believe that?" Karin scoffed. "Sure, he's here because the village is probably the highest bidder after Orochimaru was slaughtered, but he could totally go out there and travel the land on his own, or go train with whoever, without much trouble, since he's able to defend himself if someone wants to take advantage of him."

"Point taken," Sakura admitted. Karin nodded triumphantly.

"And while we're talking about Orochimaru-sama," she continued. "Is that his _head_ over the entrance to the administrative building?"

"Tsunade-sama has a very peculiar taste of ornamentation," Sakura answered uncomfortably. "And also, it was all _very_ personal to her."

"It's kinda funny, when you think about it," Karin mused. "I mean, this village sure seems to have a thing with heads, right?" She nodded towards the Hokage mountain in a distance. "So putting up _his_ head on your headquarters could be interpreted a lot differently than intended."

"Woah," Sakura said in astonishment. "Well, if you want the head taken down, I can point this out to Tsunade the next time I see her. It's hard to argue with that."

"No, I like the head where it is, the more I think about it," Karin said. "So where are these other girls I'm supposed to meet? Are we going to be the bwestest of fwiends?"

"Well, your attitude fits right in," Tenten said, jumping down from the roof of the tea house. "In more ways than one, or so I hear."

"Oh, wow, you're also talking about me behind my back," Karin concluded, rolling her eyes. "Why am I not surprised?"

"Nah, it's not as bad as it sounds," Tenten assured her. "She just told me about the basics. I'm Tenten, by the way." She stretched her hand out to greet Karin. Karin just looked at her with disdain.

"Yeah, no," she answered, crossing her arms to avoid shaking Tenten's hand. Tenten just snorted at that, while Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Fascinating," Tenten remarked. "Though I'd be a lot nicer to me, if I were you. Out of all the people you'll meet today, I'm probably the one with the least bias against you, just keep that in mind."

"Don't listen to her," Sakura advised. "Tenten is biased against everyone who doesn't fit her standards. But once you get around that, she's okay."

"Oh no, you're hurting me!" Tenten wailed dramatically. "And here you said we'd be bffs or something!"

"No, Ino said that," Sakura corrected her. "I just said I was uncomfortable with how fast we're taking this thing."

"You're weird," Karin pointed out, wrinkling her nose at them in disdain. "Is everyone in this village completely immature, unprofessional and borderline crazy? Except Sasuke-kun, that is."

"Well..." Sakura started, but was interrupted by Ino and Hinata arriving.

"Pretty much!" Ino answered gleefully instead. "Especially the boys. But as you said, Sasuke-kun is the big exception." She waved cheerfully. "So how is it going, new teammate?"

"Good evening," Hinata said quietly and bowed. "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Yeah, right," Karin scoffed, giving them the side eye.

"Alright, we're complete, so let's go in and get some tea, it's freezing out here," Tenten declared and ushered them all into the tea house.

They all settled into a booth in relative silence, Karin apparently losing her loose tongue when surrounded by so many girls at once. Well, also, where Tenten was an aggravating factor when it came to being mean to people, Hinata's mere presence kind of worked as a calming agent, since she just always seemed completely beyond petty squabbles and unpleasantness. The term calming agent caused a bad taste in Sakura's mouth regardless, so she immediately drank some tea to get rid of it, even if it was still too hot. She regretted this decision immediately. Karin, meanwhile, finally found reason to speak.

"So..." She started, focusing in on Ino. "What you said about Sasuke-kun..."

"Is completely true," Ino said, beaming at her. "There's a reason he's so popular, after all."

"He is?" Karin said, sounding a little worried all of a sudden. "I mean, even around here?"

"What, you think you're the first girl ever to notice his pretty face?" Tenten sneered and took a large gulp of tea. "Sorry to disappoint you, honey, but he's been parading that around here for twelve years before you ever set your eyes on him."

"It's more than just his face!" Ino protested indignantly but was unanimously ignored.

"What do you mean?" Karin asked skeptically.

"Well, let's just say pretty little Sasuke spent his years here surrounded by a flock of fangirls long before you entered the picture," Tenten elaborated. "It got to be so bad that his graduating class had the lowest scoring Kunoichis ever! Because they were all way too busy dolling up for their precious Sasuke-kun to figure out that maybe, just maybe, the most talented guy of the year would be placed with other high-scoring people."

That left Karin silent for the moment, and Ino tried sharing an uncomfortable glance with Sakura, who happened to be more interested in the contents of her tea cup.

"First of all, Sasuke did not have the highest graduating scores," she finally muttered under her breath. "Those went to Shikamaru and Shino, for... Reasons. And second, well... I _did_ figure that out, you know?" Tenten gave her an enthusiastic pat in the back.

"And look where it got you!"

"That's not fair!" Ino protested and glared at Sakura. "You only beat me by half a point."

"I still did," Sakura replied, shrugging, still avoiding anyone's gaze.

"And what about Naruto?" Ino asked enraged. "It's not like he was particularly high scoring! He was at the bottom of the class!"

"Apparently, they tried to make us balanced," Sakura explained. "I talked this through with Jiraiya-sama at one point, and nobody knows what happened during team assignment, just that it makes close to no sense, all things considered."

"Wait a minute," Karin demanded when she had finally picked up on the cause for the animosity between the two. "Does that mean... You two were..." She pointed at Sakura disgustedly. "You actually _do_ like him?!"

Sakura groaned and lowered her head on the table.

"Took you quite some time to figure that one out," Tenten snorted. "So you were preemptively mean to Sakura, just in case?"

"She's on a team with Sasuke-kun, that's basically all the reasons you need to be mean to her," Ino explained.

"And you, too?" Karin turned to face Ino. "And I'm supposed to work with you now?" She turned around again and stared at Hinata. "And what about you? Do you like him as well?" She asked, almost threateningly. Hinata jumped, startled, and was struck by a great coughing fit from choking on her tea.

Tenten, meanwhile, was laughing her ass off.

"No, you can give poor Hinata a break!" She assured Karin. "Her low grades had less to do with trying to look pretty for Sasuke and more to do with..."

"OH MY GOD!" Ino slapped her forehead. "I just figured it out! I always wondered why you didn't score higher than all of us, with your fancy family and everything! That's... Frighteningly clever of you, all things considered!"

"What are you talking about?" Karin asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," Sakura insisted, patting Hinata on the back, who seemed close to passing out from both choking and embarrassment. "Leave her out of this, she is no threat to you or anyone, really."

"AHA!" Ino roared. "So your big speech about being all professional now and dropping out of competition were bullshit, I knew it!"

"...What?" Sakura asked. "How did you get there?"

"Seriously, Ino, cut her some slack," Tenten unexpectedly jumped to her defense. "Just because you can't get over a pretty face doesn't mean Sakura can't eventually grow up!"

"It's not just his face!" Ino insisted. "Is it, Karin?"

"Totally not!" Karin agreed in unexpected camaraderie. Tenten just laughed at them.

"Come on, he's an arrogant little prick, to high and mighty to ever pay attention to anyone beneath him, cares about nothing but his revenge and has shit for honor and not a loyal bone in his body. Go on, tell me what there is to like about him besides his pretty face. And no, his super pretty toned body and the fact that he's, oh my god, so cool and dreamy all don't count."

That left Karin and Ino speechless again, and Sakura returned her full attention to her tea.

"So not true!" Ino eventually claimed. "He's... Like... Talented! And determined! And..."

"He sticks to his way no matter what." Karin added. "And, I don't know, the whole revenge-thing? That is kind of honorable..."

"And just how often did the two of you ever talk to him?" Tenten asked. "Go on. Tell me about all the deep, interpersonal conversations you had with him to determine that despite everything he's done, he's still a worthwhile person." She nodded triumphantly at the lack of response she got. "Case in point; Sakura has spent plenty of time with him, enough to discover what a worthless little shit he is, and she's gotten over him, haven't you?"

Sakura flinched a little at that.

"Well you sound surprisingly bitter," she deflected instead of answering. "No, really, what brought in all that resentment?"

"Almost dying in a mission to bring his pretty little ass back here might have been a contributing factor," Tenten explained, taking another big gulp of tea as if it were alcohol and she was trying to get some liquid courage. "And also the fact that you all become completely dysfunctional once he's mentioned. Well except for you, dear Sakura, you seem to have come to your senses. And Hinata of course, but she was never involved in this to begin with."

"You're oversimplifying things," Sakura neither confirmed nor denied this. "The siege was about more than Sasuke, and, well..." She brushed through her hair uncomfortably. Agreeing with Tenten about Sasuke being the worst person to ever walk the earth would get Karin off her back, make Karin like her more, and might help rekindling her friendship with Ino. But it would also, quite plainly, not be true. Yes, he had been an asshole with issues and had done some misguided, horrible things, like trying to kill Naruto twice basically, but... He'd been changing so much, lately, even giving Naruto the photo, one of the only things he had to remind him of his own parents, and he'd sort of _cared_ about her nightmare issues, and... Ugh, why did this all have to be so complicated?

"Am I?" Tenten asked in mocking disbelief. "Am I _really_?"

"Kind of?" Sakura answered carefully. "I mean... Yeah, he's generally not a nice person, and undeserving of the worship he gets, that's out of the question, especially since I know for a fact that he never said a kind word to you, Ino, or any other girl in the academy and they're still all over him..."

"What, like he's been exceptionally kind to you?" Ino argued.

"He saved me once!" Karin threw in.

"Yeah, I won't say anything about that since it would just twist your opinion and make thing worse," Sakura sighed. "No, what I mean is, he's not the most awesome person ever, he has his issues and all that. And now please don't twist this into something it isn't, but I still care about him, as a teammate. The same way I care about Naruto, actually. Sasuke is not as awesome as you think he is, but he's also not as horrible as Tenten makes him sound."

"You're only digging yourself in deeper," Tenten pointed out, less mockingly and more impressed.

"Probably," Sakura admitted and shrugged. "I don't care. I stand by what I said about being professional and not into... _Competing_ over him or something, and Ino, I am _so_ sorry I ever started this bullshit. Do what you like, hell, think about me what you like, but please, _please_ leave me out of this."

That got her an uncomfortable silence for a little while. Glancing up from her tea cup revealed that everyone was now exchanging glances and having silent conversations about her. Well, maybe not Hinata, who had the benefit of not being interested in that particular topic.

"Do you buy this?" Ino then asked Karin directly.

"Not a bit," Karin answered. "And also I don't care, they're still on a team together, so she can't withdraw, no matter what she says."

"Stellar logic," Tenten noted. "But nice try regardless. I believe you, but mostly because you're not the type to bullshit your way by saying mushy stuff."

"Can we just talk about _anything_ else?" Sakura asked and rolled her eyes.

"How do you like Konoha so far, Karin-san?" Hinata quickly tried to achieve just that.

"It's okay," Karin answered suspiciously. "Way too big for my liking, but better than expected, considering you guys recently destroyed all semblance of a normal life I ever had."

"Okay, that turned awkward really fast," Tenten commented. "But a solid effort, Hinata, thanks for that."

"So what can you do?" Ino now asked. "In combat, I mean. Like, we'll probably figure all of that out tomorrow in training, but, you know, I'm curious."

"I don't really fight," Karin answered. "I'm more useful as support. I have pretty much the best tracking sense I ever saw anyone have and also I can heal."

"And where did you learn that?" Sakura asked. She'd been wondering about Karin's alleged healing powers for some time now. "Did Kabuto teach you?"

"Ew, no," Karin answered and shuddered. " _He_ learned from _me_ , actually. That regeneration thing he does? Copied from what I do. I never needed to learn shit, my own wounds just heal really fast on their own for some reason, and if someone bites me, it heals them, too."

"That's, uh..." Sakura started, trying to sound diplomatic but unable to come up with the right words. "That's very, ah..."

"Exotic?" Tenten tried for her. "Unhygenical? Creepy?"

"I'm gonna go with interesting," Sakura decided. "And you've just been, what, born this way?"

"As far as I know," Karin said snippishly. "No parents to ask and all that. It's always been there and I haven't questioned it."

"But you can do at least basic fighting, right?" Ino asked. "I mean, it's not like our team is that big on fighting, Chouji does most of it, but if you can't fight, you're basically screwed for the third part."

"Or you coincidentally get an opponent who's just as bad at fighting as you are," Tenten added. "Then stage an elaborate fight on academy level with no clear outcome and bore everybody watching to death."

"Okay, why the hell did I invite you?" Ino wondered out-loud. "All you do is insult people!"

"Well that's basically all any of us do," Sakura pointed out. "Save for Hinata, of course, but yeah."

"Hey, I'm just telling you as it is," Tenten defended herself. "Your fight was boring as hell."

"At least it lasted longer than five minutes and neither of us had to stay at the hospital for a lengthy period of time," Ino shot back. Sakura sighed.

"Yeah, but in my five minutes, I did stuff more impressive than you could in your half hour or however long your fight was," Tenten claimed. "And also, my match was rigged from the start. How the hell are you supposed to fight someone who just blows every attack away with a giant fan?"

"Good point," Sakura admitted. "Most of these fights were either comically unbalanced, or way too balanced. And probably not as random as they seemed."

"And yet it's fascinating how the most memorable fights all went to my team," Tenten said. "I mean, I wasn't conscious for the other two, but it's what I hear, anyways. Uh, no offense, Hinata, almost killing you was shitty and all, but it must have been one hell of a fight to watch."

"None taken," Hinata sighed. "You bring this up a lot, and Neji-nii and I have moved on a long time ago."

"I have no idea what any of you are talking about," Karin finally included herself in the conversation. "I was there, too, you know? But my team didn't make it through the second part. Wasn't the plan, anyways, we were under orders to blow it, basically. And I still got saved by Sasuke-kun, so it was an all-around win-win situation."

"I'm pretty sure I can beat that," Ino said sharply. "He kinda saved me, too."

"If it comes to Sasuke saving people, I gotta say the round goes to Sakura," Tenten interjected. "I mean, damn, that was one dramatic show they put on there."

"Not a show," Sakura groaned. "And leave me out of this. Why are we talking about Sasuke again, anyways?"

"Karin started it," Ino reminded her. "And oh, yeah, right, you threw yourself at him, I remember."

"I was actually referring to what came before that," Tenten said. "But yeah, _that_ was pretty dramatic as well."

"She does that a lot, doesn't she?" Karin observed sharply. "Throwing herself at Sasuke. For all her claiming to be not interested."

"What do you mean?" Ino asked. "Did she do it again?"

"Can we _not_?" Sakura asked weakly, but had already given up on changing the topic here. Bringing Ino and Karin together had been a bad, bad, _bad_ idea. "Please?"

"Yeah, totally," Karin answered. "During that mission they were on when I found them, she was just so _touchy_ with him, you know? Even came between us when he was touching _me_ for a change!"

" _Seriously_?" Ino asked, her voice higher pitched than usual in indignation. "That whore!"

"He was _strangling_ you," Sakura tried to remind Karin in vain. "I tried to keep that from happening, remember?"

"Well, not when you were caressing his face afterwards!" Karin argued.

"Wiping blood off his face, more like!" Sakura argued back, then caught herself, rolled her eyes and just went back to her tea cup. "Okay, whatever, I'm a whore, can we move on?"

"That does sound like one hell of a mission," Tenten observed. "Mind telling us more about that?"

"Not sure if I'm allowed to," Sakura muttered.

"All they did was going to find some guy," Karin supplied the answer in her stead. "Their... Sensei? From what I could tell."

"Thank you for that possible breach of security," Sakura groaned. "Much appreciated and all that."

"Nobody told me to keep quiet about it," Karin pointed out sharply. "And also I like screwing you over, if you couldn't tell so far."

"You don't say," Sakura sighed.

"Uhm, no offense," Hinata said softly. "But... You are new to the village, are you not? And still in the initiation process, I believe? So... Isn't revealing possibly classified information more detrimental to _you_ than it would be to Sakura-san? And might compromise whether you'll be allowed to stay here or not?"

That shut Karin up for a good bit, and made her significantly more pleasant in the conversation that followed, even if it was still mostly passive-aggressive verbal sniping at each other. Though once she was taken out of the fray and allowed to just listen in, Sakura did find it all pretty amusing, just as Tenten had said she did. And hey, at least Karin and Ino were getting along somewhat, so that was a good thing... She hoped. Could turn out disastrous for her, all things considered, but at least Karin had someone to hang out with now.

 

***

 

 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Let me just make clear that I love and adore all the girls, and one day, they will be able to have civil conversations with each other. But for now, they're all stuck in puberty and with strong personalities that clash or just get a kick out of watching the others clash. And Hinata basically just gets dragged along to keep them from killing each other. Smart move, Ino, really.
> 
> Speaking of smart - Karin! I think Karin is wickedly smart and a character more complex than most people give her credit for. Including the manga who just ignored for, what, the last 50 chapters? Which makes her the bottom of the barrel when it comes to mistreated female characters. Along with stuff her in the fridge and then occasionally drag out her underage corpse to molest Rin and my entire life and dying flashback was about men Konan. And at least she got a hit in on Tobi, which also would make the list of most badass things done in the franchise, mind you. 
> 
> Yes, so would Rin choosing her own demise and refusing to be used as a weapon against her village, but that didn't come up last chapter because that's not what Team 7 saw, in case you didn't notice. Now, why is that? Reasons! See you later in the story. Which I swear is going to pick up soon enough. Just one essential plot point to go over in the next two or three chapters and THEN we're off to the Chuunin exams! Which happened in chapter 5 in the original version of this. Aaaawkwaaard...


	17. Windowsill

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura looks for clues regarding Naruto's parents, Sasuke fishes for information regarding the illusion they'd found themselves in a few chapters ago, and Naruto is precious. Also, there is a little fighting and odd team bonding, and people visiting each other via windows. Because sometimes, absolutely literal titles are the way to go.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Windowsill by Arcade Fire - because I can do highbrow music selections. Also, may contain slightly Valentine-ish content? Well, not really, the next chapter is gonna better at that, if I can finish it in time, since well, my well of NaNo content has run dry. So future updates miiight be just a little delayed. But once a month will be fine, right? Right? Please don't leave me.

**17\. Windowsill**

Sakura had just fallen onto her bed, glad that the day was over and that Karin was in her own room and unable to verbally attack her for the time being, when she heard a knock on her window. With a groan, she got up again, rubbing her eyes. Why did Naruto have horrible timing like that? She yawned and opened the window, only to be greeted not by Naruto's grin, but Sasuke's impassive face.

"What the hell did you do today to be so tired?" He asked, just a tiny little but rude.

"Paper work, ancestral research, and dealing with Karin and Ino at the same time," Sakura answered nonchalantly. "Next time they want to have some sort of meet-up, you're going, just to see how you would handle this."

"As if," Sasuke scoffed.

"Well, you're the reason they gang up on me," Sakura pointed out. "I think it would be fair if you were also to suffer the consequences."

"How is it my fault -," he started, but just shook his head. "Whatever. We have training tomorrow."

"Already?" Sakura asked in confusion. "Don't we get a little more of a break?"

"No," Sasuke answered. "I need to talk to Kurenai."

"So you made this happen," Sakura concluded. "Is that why you're the messenger now? Usually Naruto gets that job for hanging around the Hokage building too much."

"Have you found anything on his parents?" Sasuke asked. Sakura groaned.

"Not a thing," she answered. "I can't even find his last name in the records, which is weird, since if he has one, that means one of his parents had one, and that means they must have known at least one of them. Or he was left at someone's door step with a name tag, but that would have warranted an investigation that would be in his files, but nope. The earliest record I can find of him besides his birth certificate is the foster home they put him in, and then the name of the shitty person who dropped him off at his apartment to fend for himself when he was five. And no, so far nothing links him to the Fourth except maybe the blood type, but when we go by blood types only, it'd be just as likely that _we_ are his parents, or that Tsunade and Jiraiya are, actually, the probability there would be way higher, but, ugh..."

"You talk a lot for someone who's tired," Sasuke pointed out, interrupting her blabbering.

"Well, you're the first person I can talk to about this," Sakura half-heartedly explained. "And also actually one of the less hostile people I dealt with today, so yay."

"And why do you know my blood type?" Sasuke asked, looking a little disturbed. "I don't even know it myself."

"I'm a medic, I know stuff like this," Sakura reminded him. "In case I need to make a blood transfusion on the battle field or something. Which would be your lucky day, by the way, since your blood type is AB and you can receive blood from everyone. It would also be a shitty day for me, since I have blood type 0 and can't receive blood from anyone, but give it to everyone. Well, and also, if I'm the one needing the blood, something already has gone horribly wrong since, well, I doubt you know how to perform an emergency blood transfusion..."

"Are you done?" Sasuke asked when she didn't continue there.

"I think so," she sighed, but couldn't help smiling. "In way more ways than one. Why do you need to talk to Kurenai, by the way? I mean, I think I know why, but I also think we should talk this through first."

"About the tsukiyomi," Sasuke answered, as she had expected. "I wasn't going to mention specifics, just ask her if she has encountered it."

"I see," she said. "But honestly, do make sure not to mention specifics, okay? If there's really some sort of conspiracy going on, having seen what we saw could be the only leverage that we have."

"That's surprisingly ruthless of you," Saskue noted, an amused smirk on his face. "What brought this on?"

"I'm kind of pissed with everyone right now," she answered. "Not you and not Naruto, of course, but everyone above us. Tsunade, Kakashi, even Jiraiya to some degree. Not even about sending us into danger, though that plays a large part, but I get the feeling they haven't exactly been honest when it comes to other things. Like Naruto's parents."

"Might just be another screw-up of the Third," Sasuke gave her to consider. "He had a lot of those and he was in charge at the time."

"Well, from the day after Naruto's birth he was," Sakura corrected. "But yeah, I don't doubt he's involved somehow. And also, sending a little five year old boy to live on his own, who does that?"

"From what I got, that's rather common," Sasuke said quietly. "I was eight, though, but same difference."

"Seriously?" Sakura asked, positively revolted. "They just let you live on your own after... that?"

"I manage," Sasuke said flatly. "Is that all?"

"I suppose so..." Sakura mumbled, still in shock from the revelation. "I mean, unless you want to say good night to Karin..."

Sasuke acknowledged that with a glare, and vanished back onto the rooftops while Sakura was busy laughing, and then feeling a little bit like a conspirator herself. And then worrying whether Karin might have heard their conversation in her room. Oh, well. It wasn't like that situation could get any worse, anyways, no matter how many nighttime visits Sasuke suddenly started to pay her... And wasn't that a thought.

 

* * *

 

For some peculiar reason, all of Team 7 was on time the next morning, although Sakura had had a little delay due to some tacks who had mysteriously found their way into her shoes. All of them were there, even Sasuke, who had previously made it a point to be fashionably late since Kakashi wasn't there to do it. That train of thought, even if amusing at first, was actually kind of depressing, Sakura noted, as she remembered how the very first scene in that flashback genjutsu they'd been in had featured Obito being late and Kakashi lecturing him about it. In fact, the more she thought about it, the more mannerisms her sensei had actively tried to adapt from Obito, in a way that made her feel a little guilty for even knowing. You couldn't invade someone's privacy much more than that.

"How's Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto asked, lacking his usual enthusiasm.

"Still unconscious," Jiraiya answered. "But they're optimistic, as far as I've heard."

"Recovering from a shock like that can take some time," Sakura explained. "He's going to be alright pretty soon, just you wait."

Naruto didn't seem convinced, however.

"Are Hinata-chan and her team coming for training again?" He changed the topic.

"Later on, yes," Jiraiya answered. "And, ah, upon special request, Team 10 is going to join them."

"Oh no," Sakura said before she could help herself. " _All_ of Team 10? Newest member included?"

"You know, if you hate the girl so much, why are you letting her live with you?" Jiraiya immediately took her meaning and jumped straight to the point.

"I don't hate her," Sakura corrected. "She hates me, that's the difference. Please tell me you at least invited Team Gai over as well."

"I didn't invite them in the first place," Jiraiya said. "Asuma just implied it might be a good work-out and get the teamwork going in his team. You and Uchiha won't be involved anyways, you have genjutsu training."

Sakura had never been more thankful to hear that.

"But since I don't want the two of you getting stale in combat, we do sparring from now until noon. Uchiha and you, get down to it," Jiraiya continued, so Sakura stepped into the ring with Sasuke. He smirked. For whatever reason. Sakura was about to point that out to him, when he suddenly charged her. Just that it wasn't just one Sasuke charging her, but three at once. That was odd, she hadn't seen him use a clone jutsu before... Oh wait. This wasn't a clone jutsu.

Instead of dodging, Sakura focused her mind and chakra on the floor, making it crumble under the three illusionary Sasukes, without even moving a muscle, just making him think she had punched it in. Then she imagined herself going after the _real_ Sasuke, and all the ways he would counter her if she did, and how she would counter his counters... They'd done this enough for her to be able to do that. Then, while only a part of her mental orders were sort of carried out before her, she imagined how she'd wrangle his sword out of his hands, break it, and then punch him out of bounds while he was still busy staring at it, forming handsigns to seal this illusion on him, before taking herself out of it entirely.

The effort left her breathless, but when she returned to what for all intents and purposes seemed to be reality for now, Naruto was standing on the sidelines looking bored, Jiraiya looked appreciative, and Sasuke was still just standing there, eyes glazed over, but occasionally stumbling to regain his footing on the imaginary ground her imaginary self was wrecking around him.

"Do something already!" Naruto yelled at them. "This is boring!"

"I win!" Sakura declared, still trying to catch her breath. "He's caught, I win, let's call it now!"

"He's not unconscious, injured or out of bounds," Jiraiya pointed out. "And until - well then..."

Blunt force knocked Sakura over in the same moment she felt a faint headache, signaling her Sasuke had broken out of her illusion. Well, also the fact that Sasuke had just tackled her to the ground and was holding a sword to her throat were a strong indicator that that's what happened.

"Nice try," he said, also out of breath himself, and Sharingan activated.

"You cheated," she argued. "No Sharingan allowed, remember?"

"Only during genjutsu training," Sasuke reminded her and pressed the sword a little more against her throat. "Are you giving up?"

"When you've left yourself open like this?" She taunted, drew in her legs which he had failed on incapacitate when tackling her, buried both of them in his stomach and kicked him off of herself. "I think not!"

For good measure, she cast another genjutsu, showing herself clutching her throat as blood rang through her fingers, while she ran around to get Sasuke from behind. He was startled by this image for only a few seconds, then he whipped around and ducked out of her incoming punch, sending her straight at the ground. She immediately took out the power behind her punch and turned her fall into a somersault, hearing the whooshing of his sword through the air just in time to get out her tanto to dodge. This still left her at a disadvantage, as she was cowering on the ground while he was standing and had the longer blade. Getting up would only bring her into closer proximity with that blade and was thus out of the question. So when he withdrew his blade for another lunge at her, she lunged forward instead, tackling him to the ground before he could strike, remembering to keep his legs down by kneeling down on them, and wrestling the sword out of his hand for real, holding it to his throat now.

"So how about giving up?" She asked him now, but was caught off-guard when he just smirked. And then turned into goo under her. As did the floor. And _her own hands_.

In the short while it took her to realize this was yet another genjutsu, Sasuke had already shoved her out of bounds. Dammit.

"Well, at least you're not wasting your time with Kurenai," Jiraiya commented dryly. "Doesn't make for exciting viewing, but hey, it's something."

"Yeah, no kidding," Naruto agreed. "Like, the middle part was exciting, but the beginning and end were really, really lame."

"Did you just _cast off_ that first genjutsu?" Sasuke asked in disbelief. "How did you do that?" Sakura just shrugged.

"Kurenai explained it once, remember?" She answered. "And I just, uh, figured I might try. Shouldn't have done it, though, this way I had no idea you were breaking out until it was too late."

"You should have pushed him out when you had the chance," Jiraiya commented. "And our fights don't end before that, remember?"

"I expected him to be incapacitated for longer," Sakura explained herself. "And he would have, had he not used his fancy eyes. Which he isn't allowed to do during genjutsu training anyways."

"So who of you is less exhausted?" Jiraiya asked. Sakura and Sasuke exchanged a glance. She shrugged.

"Go ahead," Sasuke told her and sat down at the edge, polishing his sword even though it hadn't gotten anything on it.

"Oh, so it's my turn now?" Naruto asked. "Cool!"

Under normal circumstances, Sakura would have considered fighting Naruto just about anything but cool. She had a long-standing track record of losing, after all. But for now, she had just the faintest bit of a plan in mind. They did their usual rounds of hand-to-hand combat, followed by her fighting off five Narutos at once who were trying to set her up for that combo he did. After this had gone on for a while, she deliberately let herself be punched by him and fell to the ground. It hadn't been a very strong blow, all things considered, yet she still used this opportunity to cast a version of herself cowering on the ground where she had fallen, clutching her stomach and groaning in pain, while in reality, she got up immediately and ran behind Naruto, who was looking at her fake-self on the ground with great distress.

"Are you okay?" He asked the ground, his voice shaking. "That... That shouldn't... You usually don't go down so easily, I didn't mean to..."

But while he was still stammering, the real version of Sakura had kicked him out of bounds.

"That was mean!" Naruto complained as soon as he had hit the ground. "Really, really mean!"

"What did she do?" Jiraiya asked in amusement.

"Pretended like I hurt her really badly!" Naruto explained, rubbing his side where she had kicked him.

"Well, you did notice it was fishy," Sakura reminded him. "And I thought you had some sort of training to fight off genjutsu."

"Yeah, but..." He groaned in frustration. "Okay, this was stupid, whatever, congratulations you won. Even if it wasn't fair!"

"What, you got your ass kicked again?" Someone sounding suspiciously like Kiba yelled from a distance. "Better get used to it since it won't be the last time today!"

Team eight had shown up for training already, this time actually accompanied by Kurenai.

"You're early," Jiraiya noted. "The group training wasn't supposed to start until mid-day."

"Yes, but Kiba needs to get this out of his system," Kurenai sighed. "And I'd like that to happen before they have to work together against Asuma's team this afternoon."

"Wait, what?" Kiba asked. "We're going to team up with him? Won't we outnumber them then?"

"No, they recently got a new member," Kurenai answered. "Which is why they're participating in this at all. Now make sure not to exert yourselves too much, I'm not going to have you lose against Asuma's newly set-up und unbalanced team, you hear me?"

Kiba sniggered, Hinata chuckled a little and Shino's mouth twitched.

"Of course," Hinata assured her.

With a nod, Kurenai went on to the forest where they usually held there lessons.

"Good work, by the way," she said underway. "It's a little sad Naruto wasn't immediately able to tell your bluff, but good work nonetheless."

"That was my first time defeating him," Sakura said, trying not to sound too proud; it had been a pretty nasty trick, after all. "But I guess he'll be on his guard now."

"Well, there are ways to work around that," Kurenai told her. "But I guess that's not why you insisted on training today, is it?"

"When you fought my brother," Sasuke began, sounding a lot less hostile than usual, apparently in an effort to gain her goodwill. "Did he use his Tsukiyomi on you?"

"Not on me," Kurenai answered. "But on Kakashi. Why are you asking?"

"We found Kakashi trapped in a... similar genjutsu," Sakura tried for the diplomatic answer. "Got sucked into it ourselves and managed to break out. Do you think that's possible?"

"Well, you're standing right here, so it is obviously possible to break out of whatever got him," Kurenai noted dryly. "What makes you think it was as Tsukiyomi?"

"The way it looked," Sasuke said. "The way the whole thing was arranged, the way it felt. I've been in one before, and that's got to have been it."

"Then you know more about the matter than I do," Kurenai informed him. "As well you should, it's a skill of your family. I only heard legends about the Tsukiyomi, and those always stated it's impossible to break out of."

"So you're saying it couldn't have been the Tsukiyomi?" Sakura summarized.

"Not necessarily," Kurenai corrected. "Like I said, I only know legends. They might be exaggerated. It's an incredibly rare skill to begin with, and it's not like there are many research subjects around to find out more about it. Maybe it was a Tsukiyomi you found yourselves in, maybe it wasn't. Maybe it was a hybrid, or a weaker form of the same thing, or all of the above. It's never that clean-cut when it comes to genjutsu, especially not when they're connected to kekkei genkai. What counts is that you were able to break out of something Kakashi was not, despite his Sharingan and the fact the he is not too bad with genjutsu to begin with. How did you do that?"

"Well, basically like you showed us," Sakura answered, exchanging a glance with Sasuke who seemed to ponder Kurenai's words. "We combined our chakra resources, applied them to the right points and pushed the illusion out. Just that we also needed Naruto's chakra to do it and it messed us up a lot."

"I see," Kurenai said, a slight smile creeping on her usually solemn face. "Good work. Have you had any other opportunities to practice?"

"No," Sakura answered. "Just during sparring, and only a little."

"Yes, I saw you using a genjutsu on Naruto just now," Kurenai remembered. "Have you used them against each other, too?"

"Yes, and he fooled me into losing when I actually had him," Sakura sighed. "Even though turning into goo should have been one hell of a tip-off..."

"It's a common phobia," Sasuke interrupted her. "The mind gets too freaked out to react properly. You did one of these cast-off genjutsus."

"That you broke out of without me noticing until you had me pinned to the ground!" Sakura reminded him.

"That's because it's impossible to notice that once you've cast if off," Sasuke said sharply. "And I only broke out because I used the Sharingan in the first place."

"Well, you still won!" Sakura snapped, equally sharp. Wait, what were they fighting over right now exactly?

Kurenai looked at them with raised eyebrows and a slight smirk.

"I don't know what happened during that mission," she interrupted their argument. "But complimenting each other, even if it is a tad bit hostile, is certainly better than not caring at all."

"That's not what..." Sakura stammered, while Sasuke just made one of his non-committal grunting noises in denial. "I mean, I didn't mean to... That wasn't..."

"In any case," Kurenai interrupted her stammering. "You actually _did_ manage that kind of genjutsu?"

"I guess," Sakura answered. "I just, uh, put together what I wanted him to see and then got out of seeing it myself. Should have finished him off then and there, but, ugh..."

"She made me think we were in an actual fight by trapping me into seeing her do all the things she usually does in a fight," Sasuke elaborated on that. "It was hard to see through, but not hard to break out of."

"That's more like it," Sakura muttered, still a little confused as to why he was so insistent they talk about this at all.

"Well, of course," Kurenai said. "Sakura doesn't have the amounts of chakra available to make something extraordinarily hard to break out of. That's why she has to be sneaky, while you get away with goo." She then glanced at Sakura. "Did you figure that out on your own?"

"You did tell us how to do a cast-off genjutsu!" Sakura reminded her. "And the bit about being sneaky... Well, the likelihood that you'll have to deal with someone breaking out if a genjutsu is a lot smaller when they never even realize they're in one to begin with, right? So that one should be obvious."

"So you figured this stuff out with nothing but a theoretical instruction?" Kurenai concluded. "Including what style of genjutsu fits you best and how to effectively use it."

Sakura shrugged.

"I guess I just know my limitations," she assumed. "And I've learned most things with nothing but theoretical instruction, except for what I got from Tsunade. You can't exactly practice healing from a book."

"Alright," Kurenai said with a weird look on her face. "Disregard everything I said in our first lesson. It's time to start running."

 

* * *

 

 

Running, in Kurenai's estimation, consisted of very quickly checking whether Sasuke could perform a cast-off genjutsu if pressed, which he could, but it drained him more than it did Sakura, and then moving on to the really advanced things. As in, teaching them how to cause actual physical harm to someone with a genjutsu by simply making them believe they were physically harmed. Actually, if you had the skill, the imagination and the chakra to keep it up, you could basically make people believe just about _anything_. In training, that was a little hard to pull off, since of course they knew that everything they saw or otherwise perceived might be an illusion, but on an actual battlefield... Well, it was a little scary to think about, and Sakura was suddenly very, very glad that most ninjas neglected genjutsus in their education. In a way, this was even creepier than the mind tricks Ino could do, since at least that involved someone actively manipulating your mind by applying himself to it or entering your body or whatever. Genjutsu left you in full control of your body and just fucked with your senses and perception.

Practicing this was still horribly draining, however. Now that they had moved on to the really big stuff, Sakura could perform maybe one or two of the advanced and complicated illusions and break out of just as many before her chakra reserves were completely drained, while Sasuke was a little out of breath, but gave off the impression that he could do this all day. This was why she excused herself from training as soon as she had no more chakra left to work on some more research. This way, Sasuke could get focused training especially regarding chakra usage, and she could go back to finding out Naruto's origins. But now, she had decided to move away from official records and go to the library instead. Just because there was no Uzumaki registered in Konoha except for Naruto didn't mean there were no Uzumakis elsewhere...

Current lists of known clans in other villages gave her nothing, though. A study on last names and their origins had no mention of anything Uzumaki related, either. As if the name didn't even exist... But just because you couldn't find something in the present didn't mean you couldn't find it in the past. She used to have trouble getting into the archives of really old books and scrolls on the Konoha library, but working for Tsunade again had its perks, as it so often did.

Her first look went into a tome on ancient clans from the major villages, as she intended to work her way from the general and most likely to the obscure ways to find anything related to the Uzumaki name. None of the ancient listings of long-dead clans and family lines from the other four major villages offered anything on that, though, so she moved on to the definitely not legally obtained scriptures on the smaller villages. The nature of the small villages, Ame, Kusa, what have you, was always very fickle; very few of them were known for their longevity as they had the misfortune to usually be placed between the major villages and thus be the battlefield for their many wars, or attract more customers from the border regions and be bad for the big village's business. Either scenario usually resulted in the smaller villages getting taken out sooner or later, so getting any substantial information on them, their traditions and their lineages was tricky. And also frustrating, as hours upon hours passed by while Sakura was buried over dusty books and scrolls looking for one stupid family name. Who knew, maybe Naruto had gotten his name from a social worker who felt it would be funny to give the charge she was going to abandon at age five a last name. Not a common practice in Konoha, mind you, but at this point, Sakura believed it to be entirely possible.

And then she stumbled over an ancient scroll mentioning a village called Uzushiogakure. Sure, two syllables matching Naruto's name wasn't exactly a connection, but that wasn't what caught her eye to begin with. No, what caught her eye was the sign in the middle of the scroll, the village's symbol from what she could make out. A circle with a spiral in it, black against a red backdrop. The sign on the back of the Konoha flak jackets and on the shoulders of the standard issued shirts, to be exact. This was followed by an encrypted description of some form of enemy the village this had been taken from had had, featuring red hair and an uncanny resistance to damage and injury, as well as close to superhuman regenerative abilities. She remembered learning the code somewhere in the academy, but couldn't immediately recall where it had been used. Below the encoded text was a scribble of a seal that also featured the swirl from the Konoha gear at its center, and several more symbols around it. Symbols that she had seen somewhere... And even below that was a stamp reading "confiscated for the good of the alliance" and a date from the early years of the third ninja war. That meant that this scroll had been taken from enemies of Konoha, which would explain why she had learned the code at some point... For the good of the alliance? Rechecking the seal on the scroll, Sakura recognized it as a third ninja war era seal used by Kumo for secret communication. In addition to learning enemy codes, they'd also been shown pictures of all the different ways intel scrolls were sealed in the different villages in the academy and had had a pop quiz on them later on, so she had made a point to memorize them all.

Now where did she know that seal from? Something in her mind associated it with Naruto... Just like the superhuman ability to shrug off damage and fast regeneration ability. Like when he had his right lung wing pierced by a chidori, and the lung hadn't only not collapsed but he had still kept breathing on his own and woken up only a few hours after being healed, whereas it had taken Sasuke almost an entire day to recover from damage a lot less severe.

Wait, and when that happened, hadn't she also seen some sort of seal on Naruto's stomach? That held back some sort of weird power she couldn't place but that had slowly been healing him from the inside?

She looked around conspiratorially, then got out her notepad from her bag and copied down the seal on the scroll. And then the description of the red hair caught her eye... The woman in the picture Sasuke had shown them had had red hair, hadn't she? And kind of Naruto's features? Well, not too big of a connection, still, didn't prove anything... After all, Karin had hair in just the same shade of red, and... Conveniently no parents or relatives she could remember. And, according to her own words, unnaturally fast regeneration from wounds. And while she was on the topic of red-haired women with mysterious origins...

She finished copying the seal positively buzzing with excitement and hurried to the room that contained the regular history books, like the ones they had gotten at the academy. Once she found that exact one, she started looking for the origin of Konoha in it, and found a picture of the first hokage, Hashirama Senju, and his red-haired wife Mito, who had no listed last name and instead a curiously large space after her name. Not too large, granted, but large enough that you could tell something might be missing there. And now that she thought of it... She looked more closely at the founding story. Yes, there was a side-note on how the Uchiha clan had somehow been involved in the founding of the village, but nothing major. Which wasn't exactly how she remembered the story going from reading this book when she had received it at age five when starting the academy. Back then, there had been a large paragraph of the Uchiha participation in the founding of the village, but the guy on the picture above it had looked creepy to her, so she'd skipped that part... And at the bottom had been a reference to another chapter of the book detailing the Uchiha clan more fully. Yes, right, she had recalled seeing pictures of the Sharingan in this when Sasuke did his mind-invasion Sharingan thing on her. But browsing a little more revealed the same thing she had recalled then; this copy, updated shortly after the death of Sasuke's clan, had no further info on the Uchiha. Further proof that stuff got taken out of history books. And now that she thought of it, hadn't the last name of the woman the first Hokage had married been blackened out in that first copy she had received?

She looked at the picture again. The symbol of Uzushiogakure was featured on her clothes a lot, but not on the shodaime... Unless you counted the swirly symbol in the middle of the leaf symbol, of course.

She was completely grasping at straws here, obviously, but what were the odds of an entire village full of red-haired people with regenerative powers beyond what should be humanly possible practicing fuin jutsu that could be found on Naruto's stomach without any connection to Naruto himself?

"Excuse me," she asked a library worker. "Do you have previous issues of this book?"

"Why?" The worker asked in surprise. "That's the up-to-date one, what would you need an earlier version for? And also, don't you already have this?"

"Of course I do," Sakura answered. "It's a standard academy book, but I want to look at how the depiction of certain aspects was changed over time..."

"Uh, I dunno," the worker answered. "I think the old versions are either burned or stored somewhere, but you'd probably have to get official access to them somehow. Sorry!"

"That's okay," Sakura sighed. "Thank you for your help."

 

***

 

"What are you on about?" Tsunade asked her suspiciously when they had lunch together the next day. Without another summon to training, Sakura had arranged to help her master with paperwork all noon and been extra pleasant. Apparently, she had not escaped her master's notice.

"Nothing, really," she muttered into her noodles. Tsunade was unconvinced.

"You've been seen at the library recently," she then revealed. "And a few days ago, you helped out in the archives. What are you looking for?"

"Nothing in particular," Sakura lied. "I just noticed that things in my academy books... Changed."

"Changed how?" Tsunade asked, eyes narrowed and looking at her closely.

"Well, I remember that when I first got the book, there was like, a whole chapter about the Uchiha clan and its history and all that, and especially something about the Sharingan," Sakura answered. It wasn't exactly a lie, either. "And in the newer edition, the Uchihas are a footnote, even when it comes to the founding of this village, and that's bullshit."

"No kidding," Tsunade scoffed. "I guess they just used that space for recent events after there were no more Uchihas left."

"Well there still are some left," Sakura pointed out. "And at least one of them remains a threat to the village, so wouldn't this information be useful to have?"

"I haven't taken care of anything regarding school book censorship yet," Tsunade sighed. "But it's probably something to get behind, yeah. So you want to research the Sharingan? Why not just ask your resident Uchiha?"

"Yeah, right," Sakura snorted.

"That's the spirit," Tsunade commended. "So you want official access to the old school books?"

"That would be awesome," Sakura answered, trying not to sound too eager. Tsunade sighed again, pulled out a sheet of paper and signed it.

"There you go," she said. "They're in the high-confidentiality department under the academy. Give him hell."

"Will do," Sakura promised. "And also, you should _really_ get behind looking through these school books. They don't even tell us where your grandmother's from anymore."

"My... grandmother..." Tsunade repeated, suddenly _very_ interested. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, I looked at the founding story of Konoha," Sakura answered, shrugging. "And they had all kinds of tales on your grandfather, but nothing about the Uchiha except something amounting to 'and yeah, those guys were involved as well' and nothing on your grandmother, except for 'married this Mito woman'. Like the founding father of this village would marry someone with no connections, especially during that period of time."

"Wow," Tsunade chuckled. "I'm not sure who's less subtle right now. Hiruzen with what he had taken out of history, or you with where you're going with this."

"I'm not going anywhere," Sakura denied this, biting her lips. "Just making a general observation."

"I'm sure you are," Tsunade said mockingly. "What else could this be about."

"Well, what do you think this is about?" Sakura asked indignantly.

"Oh no," Tsunade laughed at her. "I'm not going to make this easier for you by giving you suggestions. You have the access you wanted, find out what you like, but treat it confidentially. I mean, I thought this was all stupid to begin with, but I'm still sworn to secrecy regarding the whole matter."

"What matter?" Sakura tried asking.

"The matter I'm not allowed to talk to you about," Tsunade repeated, rolling her eyes at her.

"You're the Hokage," Sakura reminded her. "Who the hell could forbid you talking about stuff?"

"Oh, there are a lot of inner workings and insitutions I'm not allowed to tell you about, unless you seek to be a member of the deepest ANBU circles," Tsunade told her nonchalantly. "Which would be a waste of your talents and also something you just happen to have too much personality for."

"While that sounds fascinatingly interesting and all," Sakura said. "I don't really see how this is related to history books not talking about your grandmother."

"A bunch of rules and restrictions made up by dead people," Tsunade explained. "I'm bound to them, but you never promised anyone anything, and last time I checked, looking at old school books wasn't illegal, so that's what we're sticking to, got it?"

"Sure," Sakura said, albeit not quite sure whether Tsunade and her were talking, or, well, not talking, about the same subject. "So what is it with your grandmother?"

"She was a ridiculously proper, correct, dignified and _old_ woman," Tsunade answered. "Outlived several of her children and grandchildren. Well, you know my brother died very young, but that's beside the point, she was still alive shortly before the Yondaime came into power."

"I see," Sakura remarked, trying to sound only vaguely interested. "How did she get so old?"

"A family thing or something," Tsunade answered, shrugging. "Didn't pass it on to anyone else in the lineage. Or, well, I come from a family of perpetual glory seekers, so most of them just died early as a result of that. No idea how old they would have gotten otherwise."

And now Sakura felt bad for even bringing this up. Tsunade had told her about her past and reasons to leave the village very briefly and very early on, and it was not something she liked to talk about. Her mentor felt equally torn up about something, Sakura could tell by the way she fiddled with her chopsticks.

"So before you run out to look through old school books and whatever else you may find down there," Tsunade said after a while. "I think you should know that Jiraiya wrote books before he started to write porn. That might be something worth checking out if you're looking for what I think you're looking for."

 

* * *

 

 

It had been a very awesome day, Naruto mused as he threw himself onto his bed. The old pervert and him hand been working on some advanced form of the Rasengan all day, and some day, he might even be able to throw it! And wouldn't that be just amazing? Well, it sucked that he hadn't seen his friends all day, but hey. It would be just a matter of time until the trained together again; they were a team, after all! Even if Sakura-chan and the bastard now ganged up on him all the time... Well, he had been a total asshole himself during that mission, so whatever. Just sucked that the bastard's mean had somehow rubbed off on Sakura-chan now. But ah, that would probably go away again once the two stopped spending so much time together thinking up mean illusions they could throw people into. And also if they spent more time around nice people. Like him! Or Hinata-chan, for that matter.

Oh, also, the pervert had taken him out for ramen after training, and that was usually enough to make a day awesome by default. Now if only Kakashi-sensei would regain consciousness some time soon...

He had just been about to fall asleep over these happy thoughts when he heard a knock on the window next to his bed and shot up again. In front of his window was Sakura-chan, looking all disheveled and kinda sad and kinda worried. He opened the window in a hurry.

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" He greeted her and beamed at her, since usually that made her smile just a little. "Are you okay? Wanna come in?" He glanced over his shoulder and spotted the chaos behind him. "Well, uh, if you don't mind a little mess, that is..."

"No, that's okay," she declined his offer in a hushed voice. Why was she so nervous? She was even looking both ways as if she feared being watched or something. "Can I please see the photo that Sasuke gave you again?"

"Uh, sure," he answered and took the picture from his nightstand. It wasn't framed yet, since he meant to wait with that until they had proof that these people were actually his parents. Like, how creepy would it be to have a framed picture of total strangers on his nightstand? ...Probably not much creepier than having an unframed picture of potential total strangers on his nightstand, all things considered, but that was beside the point. He handed the thing over to Sakura, who stared at it intently for a while.

"They don't look any less like me now, you know," he joked, but Sakura-chan was having none of it.

"Not what I'm checking for," she answered distractedly. "Okay," she then said and handed the picture back to him.

"What?" He asked in confusion. "Did you scan for finger prints or something?"

"No, just for resemblances," Sakura-chan answered. "Not between you and the people on the picture, but... different."

"Different how?" He asked, suddenly growing excited. "Have you found something out?"

That just made her look even more nervous.

"I may or may not have a trace," she avoided answering. "And don't take this the wrong way, but could you please pick up your shirt?"

"Huh?" He asked her in total confusion. "You want me to strip? For you? ...Are you sure you don't want to come in for that?"

She hit him on the head for that, not as hard as she could have, but it still hurt, and sent him flying onto his bed again, but it was just so funny and predictable that he laughed the whole time.

"No, you idiot," she hissed, looking and sounding a lot like herself all of a sudden, which he counted as a win. "I just need to see your stomach really quick, okay?"

"Uh, sure," he said carefully. He did feel a little self-conscious about his tummy, since there was the seal of the kyuubi there, and, uh, he had kinda avoided telling people about that, so... Ah, whatever, she'd seen his seal before, and also, she was doing this for him and stuff, so he just complied and picked up his shirt. Sakura-chan scrutinized the seal for a while, then pulled out a notepad and looked back and forth between that and his belly.

"Not the same," she muttered. "But... Too similar to be unrelated..."

"Yeah, that's what I've been saying about me and the Yondaime all the time," he reminded her sheepishly. She slapped him on the head with her notepad.

"Not what I mean," she hissed again. "There's no way for me to prove you're related yet, I'm looking for your mother."

"Aaah," he made. He had no idea what exactly she was doing, but she put away her notepad and sighed again. "Can I drop the shirt now? Or do you want me to undress completely? Because I totally would, just for you."

He got ready to dodge another hit for that one, but instead of that, Sakura-chan just sighed, rolled her eyes and started massaging her temples for some reason.

"No, that's okay," she then told him. "And, uh... I have something for you..."

"First you want me to strip and now you give me gifts?" He joked. "My, my, what has gotten into you all of a sudden?"

"Not funny," she sighed and handed him a... Book. A fictional one, at that. "This, ah, is something Tsunade-sama indirectly made me discover," she said, glancing around again. "It's... Well, read it. It's written by Jiraiya, but before you make any other jokes, no, it's not porn."

"I didn't know he writes anything _but_ porn," he said, looking at the title of the book. _The Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi_.

"This one sold so badly he gave up on writing non-pornographic stuff," Sakura told him. "And, uh, keep in mind, whatever this might say, it might just be a coincidence, okay? There's no proof for anything. So please don't freak out?"

"Okay," he said, a little worried. "Sakura-chan, what is this?"

"Just read it," she sighed. "But please, please don't confront Jiraiya about it immediately, okay? Keep quiet until we have more clarity on the matter. This is important."

"Alright," he assured her again. "But if you're so worried about me spilling something, why give this to me now?"

"Because you really should know," she said gravely. "I really have no solid proof of anything yet, okay? Just a few traces into all directions, and well, that doesn't necessarily mean anything, alright?"

"You keep saying that," he noted. "But if you were really so sure that you're gonna find nothing, I don't think you would do that."

"Good point," she chuckled. "Well, the trace I have is interesting, and this book... Hints at a few things, you know? That could still be a total coincidence, so... Keep it to yourself, alright? But _read_ it!"

"Sure," he assured her some more. "I'll get right to it. Thank you so much for doing this for me."

"Don't mention it," she said with a slight smile. "See you!"

And with that ominous... _Everything_ she was off. Completely confused now, Naruto closed the window, turned on the light and opened the book. He had read stuff by Jiraiya before, for... Educational purposes, as the pervert had put it, and Naruto had never felt clean again ever since, and really, _why would you educate a fourteen year old in this_. The content was so bad, he had started focusing on the stupid things his academy teachers insisted he check for in letters or notes, like, word usage, or recurring themes, or symbolism and stuff, and so he'd gotten a pretty good insight on Jiraiya's writing style while mostly trying to ignore the content, and therefore wasn't surprised when the book started with _Once upon a time, there was a shinobi named Naruto_.

...Wait, no. What the hell?

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Naruto is precious and I should write everything forever from his perspective. Well, not really, I adore Sakura too much for that, even if her POVs were getting a little tedious over the last few chapters, so a change of pace was in order. Next chapter will have tons of Sasuke POV, and even some Tenten! Or maybe that's the chapter after the next, depending on how long it gets. Oh well.


	18. Superboy and the Invisible Girl

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sakura finally digs up everything necessary to prove Naruto's parentage. Things go downhill from there.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am SO, SO SORRY for the long wait. Life has been a bitch. Also, this chapter has been a bitch. For reasons. It is really, really long though, if that makes up for anything.  
> Now behold: An entire chapter without Sakura's POV in it. And no, that's not what made it so hard to write. 
> 
> (Yes, I am aware this chapter has an odd romantic focus. And I am also aware that Superboy and the Invisible Girl are siblings in the play the song if from. Which you can even tell just from the lyrics. I choose songs based on their titles most of the time, don't judge me.)
> 
> (No, there is no incest in this chapter. How would there be if most of the characters don't even have siblings. And it will take some time until an actual set of siblings show up. Neji and Hinata being genetical half-siblings due to their fathers being twins don't count. And there's nothing romantic involving them... With each other in this either. Shush.)

**18\. Superboy and the Invisible Girl**

The following week that was horribly _annoying_. Team training happened only twice, and both times, neither Naruto nor Sakura were up to speed. For some reason, they both looked like they didn't sleep anymore, and reacted that way, too. When they got to the genjutsu training, Sakura's illusions now usually featured getting buried by books and scrolls in a fashion. And she didn't even stick around until the end! No, even when she wasn't out of chakra yet, Sakura usually excused herself after just a few exercises and went back to her research.

Naruto meanwhile was getting more and more reckless in fights and left himself open all the time. Not that he was usually known for his intelligent way of fighting, but it got to be so embarrassing that in the occasional group fight sessions with team 8, they paired him with Hinata again just to give him a fighting chance. And of course, Sasuke himself got nothing out of sparring with Naruto that way, either. Sure, he was still recovering from what the drug withdrawal had cost him, but with his teammates being the way they were and nothing else to do, he just trained all day and was slowly coming back to form. Yeah, as if he had needed drugs in the first place. Probably just a creepy way to tie him to Oto.

Meanwhile, Naruto had become somewhat aggressive, or rather passive aggressive, towards _Jiraiya_ of all people. And while Sasuke himself had no clue what was going on, he could tell that Sakura had. Which meant they were keeping a secret from him. And when it came down to it, between not getting any Sharingan lessons from a still unconscious Kakashi, having no missions, and only doing productive things with Kurenai (which were at least productive enough to enable him to break out of a _Tsukiyomi_ ), the fact that Naruto and Sakura were _keeping something from him_ probably annoyed him the most. Weren't they the ones who always insisted on being a team and friends and all that other mushy stuff?

Well, Sasuke figured that whatever was going on between the two (...) was related to Sakura's ongoing search for Naruto's parents. Or maybe she had found the answers and they just hadn't told him. Not that he cared; it was none of his business after all. It just made team work bad, training unfruitful and sparring frustrating, and also, Naruto still had his photo. _His photo_. Of his own, proven, and undisputed mother. Didn't that give him some kind of right to know whether Naruto was related to the other two people in the picture?

Well, according to his _teammates_ it apparently didn't.

It frustrated him to no end, and there was no real way to vent his frustrations, since sparring fights of any kind were over very quickly and ridiculously unbalanced. So unbalanced he was about to ask Jiraiya to call the others back to order, but that would require talking to him. No, that would not do. So one day after genjutsu training with Kurenai (where he now was better than Sakura again since she always left early and didn't even seem to care), he tracked down where Sakura had gone off to so early. He lost her trace in front of the academy, where he couldn't just waltz in without an actual reason to do so, and waited. Not for too long, of course. The sun was already setting and Sakura had a mother to come home to, so she couldn't stay out too late. Of course, asking Naruto would probably have been easier. But Sakura was more likely to actually _know_ things, Naruto just seemed full of very vague, poorly directed anger. So he waited for Sakura. For a while longer than he had expected to, but finally, long after dark, a person with vaguely pink hair exited the building. What she was doing in the academy to begin with was anyone's guess.

He left his position in his tree and jumped to the ground next to her.

"Hey," he greeted her. Sakura frowned at him, looking mildly surprised.

"Hi," she then greeted back, but didn't stop walking.

"What the hell is going on with you and Naruto?" He decided to immediately get to the point. No use beating around the bush.

"...Excuse me?" Sakura asked, looking disturbed.

"You're constantly distracted, don't do shit at training anymore and don't talk to me," he summarized his observations. "It's annoying. What's going on?"

"Not here," Sakura sighed and started walking faster. He hurried up as well, and before he could help himself grabbed her wrist to keep her from walking away. "Sasuke!" She hissed, glaring at him. "Let me go!"

"Tell me what's going on," he insisted, glaring back. Sakura rolled her eyes and wrestled her arm out of his grasp. Stupid super strength of hers.

"Like I said, _not here_ ," she repeated herself. "I've you're so desperate to know, meet me at my window in an hour, and please, _please_ be quiet. If Karin finds out you're visiting me..."

"Sakura, she's a fucking sensor," Sasuke reminded her, a little confused that she hadn't thought of that herself. "She'll know if I'm there, not matter what."

Sakura face palmed.

"Oh my god, how could I miss that!?" She sighed in exasperation. "Well, that explains the tacks in my shoes the morning after you visited... And here I thought she was just being preemptively mean to me again."

"So she literally punishes you for talking to me?" Sasuke asked, mildly disturbed. "Even if I started it? That's fucked up."

"Tell me about it," Sakura sighed. "Okay, so my place is out, and I can't really sneak out anymore without her alerting my mom and then I would have to give explanations..."

"Then tell me right now," he suggested.

"I'm not about to reveal sensitive research material to you," she snapped at him. "Especially not _in earshot_ of the place where I got it." She had raised her voice, indicating that there actually was someone listening to them. And indeed, while she spoke, someone had come out of the academy building and was now locking up the place. "Quite frankly what I'm doing on the Hokage's personal orders is none of your business, and you're being an insensitive ass for pressuring me that way!" While her voice got more worked up, her face remained calm and she stared him directly in the eyes. And for about a second or two, they were on one of the water containers on the hospital roof before returning to their current location again. Aah.

"You're right, I'm sorry," he said a little louder than absolutely necessary. "If you didn't suck at training so much recently, I wouldn't have to bother, though."

" _Excuse me_?" She said indignantly. "Oh, it is _so_ on now. Show up to training tomorrow and I'll show you who sucks!"

"You're on," he assured her, and without another word jumped back into the trees to take the long way around to the hospital roof.

 

***

 

"I didn't expect you to care," Sakura greeted him when they met again on the water tank. "Sorry, we weren't actually keeping anything from you on purpose."

"We won't be overheard here?" Sasuke asked before acknowledging that. Sakura did a few quick hand seals.

"Even if someone bothered, now we won't be," she then told him. "Genjutsu around the area, everyone will hear nothing but silence and the occasional animal noise."

"Why this place?" He asked next. She shrugged.

"I like the hospital, and came to check up on Kakashi-sensei anyways," she explained. "His brain activity is increasing, by the way, so he might wake up soon." She paused there for a while, and then glanced at him uncomfortably. "Do you think he will remember the genjutsu? I mean, after the coma..."

"I did," Sasuke answered, trying to sound as dismissive as he could. "My coma was shorter, though."

She made a little sound to that in acknowledgement, but at least she didn't say she was sorry again. As if that changed anything. And as if he didn't know she'd be horrified. They sat in silence for a while.

"So..." Sakura started after a while, shifting a little where she was sitting. Was she uncomfortable? Huh. "What exactly is it that you want to know? I don't have much proof of anything yet, but, ah, I'm getting there..."

"What's been going on with Naruto?" He therefore asked his most pressing question. "I get that you are tired from digging through paper work all the time, but what's with him? And why is he looking like he's about to kill Jiraiya?"

"Well..." She did that thing again where her voice just trailed off after the first word, like she was trying to avoid talking to him even now. Despite the fact that she had chosen the terms of this meeting. Ugh, annoying. "So, it turns out Jiraiya once wrote a book..."

"You're reading his porn?" Sasuke interrupted her there, both due to actual interest and to maybe lighten the mood and make her more comfortable. And talkative.

"No, of course not!" She immediately denied that and shoved him a little. "As if... Though it might be revealing in other ways... Ew, ew, no, that's not what this is about."

"Then get to the point," he urged her on. They didn't have all night, after all.

"So, before Jiraiya wrote porn, he wrote this really unsuccessful adventure epic about a very gutsy shinobi," she finally explained. "I only skimmed it, and it seemed kind of... Cheesy, to be honest, but the thing is, the main character's name was Naruto."

"Are you shitting me?" Sasuke asked. That was one more weird coincidence right there.

"I am not," she answered with a slight smile. "That's why I gave the book to Naruto, like, the non-fictional one. Our Naruto. You get my point. And he's been reading it. Have you ever seen the seal on Naruto's stomach?"

"Yes," he answered. That was a weird change of topic. "Why?"

"And you did notice that sometimes, in really bad fights, he turns a little... Weird, I guess?" She continued, ignoring his question. "Like, starts glowing, the marks on his face get wider, his eyes get sort of... Predator-ly..."

"I noticed," Sasuke confirmed briefly. "So?"

"So I think there's something sealed inside him," Sakura answered. "Something that links him to a long line of people that influenced the village and played a big part in our history. And who were for some reason taken out of our history books briefly before we started our education." She chuckled a little. "And I wouldn't have caught that if it hadn't been for you, you know?"

"...No?" She was getting _really_ weird now.

"Well, there used to be all sorts of information on your family in the history books, too," she elaborated. "I mean, all they say now is that there was this one guy who may or may not have helped founding the village and never did anything significant again afterwards and you're his descendant or something. Previously, there was a more detailed account of some kind of epic friendship between him and the Shodaime, and a lot of info on how to fight Uchihas and deal with the Sharingan and all that. That got taken out after, well, everyone but you and your brother died. Suspicious, isn't it?"

"Maybe they just didn't want to waste any more paper on a dead clan," he suggested bitterly.

"Which is why they had completely new issues printed for everyone, right," she snorted. "Your brother is still an internationally wanted criminal, and so were you, incidentally, so knowing what to do when faced with either of you is totally unnecessary."

"That fits how it was unnecessary to teach me anything that might help against him," Sasuke noted. "So the Third was more thorough than we though."

"Oh, yes, he was very, very thorough," Sakura said, sounding triumphant for a bit. "But he kept all the old books stored somewhere else, and Tsunade gave me access since she doesn't buy into this bullshit."

"But you'll be done soon?" He asked her after she'd been wiggling her legs for a little while in silence.

"I hope so," she answered. "I mean, I can build a very good and convincing case for Naruto's lineage at this point, but there's no actual proof. Just a series of fortunate coincidences." She paused again. "Well, I can probably proof that he's related to that woman in the picture you showed us. And if that's so, it might be he actually has at least one living relative left." She laughed at this. "Oh, they're going to love that..."

"What are you on about?" He interrupted her monologue again.

"Oh no, I'm not telling you this," she said and waved dismissively. "Not before I have anything solid. And right now the most solid thing I have is the seal on his stomach, and that could be anything, right?"

"It seals something," Sasuke pointed out the obvious. "And we don't know what. Do you think Naruto knows?"

"I'm going to try finding this out on my own," Sakura avoided the question. "I... Have a theory, based on a lot of coincidences, and if I'm right, well... Then I damn well hope he knows. And I understand why we don't. It's... Heavy."

"So you can't actually tell me anything," Sasuke concluded.

"I told you a lot," Sakura argued. "You just can't put it all into context yet, since I'm not giving you an elaborate lecture on all the sources I went through before I'm sure there'd be a point in doing that." She sighed again. "Well, and even if all of what I suspect _isn't_ true... That book I mentioned? With that Naruto main character?"

"What about it?" He asked, rolling his eyes.

"It only ever got one positive review," she answered, a mischievous smile on her face. "I found a magazine about it, also in the archives for some reason. That positive review calls the Naruto an inspiration and everything a true shinobi should aspire to be. Even though it was a very pacifist book, and that outlook just didn't sell during the last shinobi war. Do you want to know who wrote that review?"

"You want to tell me," he pointed out. "So just go ahead."

"Namikaze Minato," she answered. "Also known as the fourth Hokage. What a curious coincidence, don't you think?"

"So if all else fails, you're going to tell Naruto the Fourth was his father and named him after his favorite fictional character?" Sasuke concluded. "Wow."

"Hey, it's not the worst thing to name your children after," Sakura argued. "It’s better than, say, your favorite food... Which could also fit Naruto, come to think of it." She shook her head dismissively. "Well, in any case, it would be kind of sweet and honoring his own sensei, and whatever. In any case, Jiraiya would probably know all about it, which is why Naruto is a little pissed off with him right now. I mean, if this was you and people constantly withheld the truth from you, wouldn't you be?"

"I guess," he admitted. Then groaned and got up. "Just get this over with. With Kakashi out and you two completely incompetent, training just sucks right now."

"Mmmhm," Sakura made with something akin to a smirk. "Yeah. Training. That's why you snuck up on me tonight and listened to me rant cryptically for fifteen minutes, I get it."

He rolled his eyes.

"What are you implying?" He asked in annoyance.

"Oh, nothing," she chuckled and got to her feet. "I have to go home, though. Mom is probably already scaling the walls, it's good Karin is there to distract her... Oh, that reminds me, would you like to come over for dinner? She'd be delighted."

"Sure," he snorted. "She'd be delighted if we came _together_ and because _you_ invited me. Do you want more tacks in your shoes?"

"Good point," she admitted. "Damn. Well, then I suppose I'll see you tomorrow." And with that she was off, and he could have sworn she'd gotten a little nervous around those last words. Though he hoped not. Nervous Sakura was almost as annoying as cryptic Sakura was right now. Well, at least she seemed to be about to come to an end, so eh. He wouldn't have to endure this for much longer.

 

***

 

At least that's what he had thought after that initial conversation. However, things did not get better afterwards, at all, and it took Sakura almost an entire week to actually _summon_ Naruto and him to Kakashi's hospital room. As a special patient in a delicate condition, he got a room for himself just like Sasuke had, and Sakura claimed they wouldn't get any more privacy than this anywhere.

Sasuke arrived last, and came right into the most awkward the atmosphere between Naruto and Sakura had ever been. Not even his misguided attempts at flirting with her while on a mission had come close to this. The fact that Sakura had practically hidden herself between a wall of books and files didn't help, either.

"So you have your lecture ready?" Sasuke asked instead of a greeting, pulled over a chair and sat down next to Naruto, who was staring at the book in his lap, and across from Sakura, with Kakashi's still unconscious body between them. Also more books. Maybe he should have brought something to read, too.

"Oh, trust me, I do," Sakura sighed, blowing strands of hair out of her face. "But, ah, I can spare you about ninety percent of it if we just get over one single detail. If that doesn't fit, most of this stuff is irrelevant." She bit her lip and looked at Naruto uncomfortably.

"Which means you're convinced it fits," Sasuke concluded to fill the silence. "Otherwise you wouldn't have bothered."

"Basically," she sighed again. "Okay, Naruto, I'm sorry, but that seal on your stomach..."

"Do you want me to strip for you again?" Naruto asked in what was evidently supposed to be a joke, but there was nothing of his usual cheer in his voice. It sounded more afraid. "Because I'm not gonna do that in front of Kakashi-sensei."

Sakura smiled a bit at that.

"No, that won't be necessary," she assured him softly. "Okay, so. That seal. Does that seal the nine-tailed fox inside of you that attacked the village on the day you were born?"

Naruto didn't respond to that immediately. Well, at least verbally he didn't. He just stared at Sakura for a while, first looking scared, then confused, then curious and then delighted, all at once, and that alone was enough of a response, really. It made sense, Sasuke supposed. The marks of his face and the tails his chakra formed around him when he got into emergency mode and the way his eyes changed did have a fox-like tendency to them. And so did his choice of attire. How a fox could do all that to a person and be sealed inside of them still eluded Sasuke, but he had seen stranger things happening.

"...Yeah," Naruto finally said in a small voice and stared at the book in his lap again. "Uh, sorry for not telling you guys this, I guess..."

"It's okay," Sakura said. "The official term for what that makes you is jinchuuriki, by the way. And that fox is one of nine tailed beasts, the one with the nine tails. Nobody really knows where they came from, but they're extremely powerful and dangerous, so a technique was developed to seal them into human containers." She paused. "Am I right in assuming that that's what Gaara was, too?"

"Yes," Naruto confirmed. "It's, ah, why we bonded, kind of, you know? Since, sure, this village treated me like shit growing up, probably because of that, but his village? They not only treated him like shit, but also like a weapon and stuff, which is why he got a little crazy, I think, uh, yeah..."

"Makes perfect sense," Sakura claimed, nodding to herself. "Well, it seems like Sarutobi tried to ignore that instead, and made the entire village play along. It's a thing he did a lot, as far as I can tell, since that means..." She pulled out a file and showed them an old piece of parchment that had Naruto's seal on it and a code above it Sasuke couldn't immediately decipher. And also the swirl symbol found on the Konoha flak jackets.

"Is that why you needed to see my seal back then?" Naruto asked, eyeing the parchment attentively. "And also, what does this even say?"

"This is secret war correspondence from somewhere to Kumo," Sakura didn't exactly answer the question. "It's from the third ninja war and describes people from a village that no longer exists but once was called Uzushiogakure. Apparently, people from there were known for their extraordinary sealing techniques, and regenerative abilities. Somewhere else it also says these people were extraordinarily skilled at sensing chakra. I'm not sure whether that meant _everyone_ in the village or just a certain family, but I think it's the latter. I'll get to why in a bit, but for now, just note that these people developed your seal and were the first known to seal away those tailed beasts, which is part of why they were feared too much. Which eventually led to the village's complete destruction during the third shinobi war. But for now, look at this bit," she pointed at the swirl on top of the page against the red backdrop. "Recognized that from somewhere?"

"That's all over the village," Naruto answered. "Like, on the jackets, the shirts, even on my clothes right now I think... And kind of in the leaf symbol itself, right?"

"Pretty much," Sakura confirmed, a proud smile on her face. "Something else the message there mentions, by the way, is the tendency for these people to have red hair. Which brings me to..." She pulled out the history book they'd all gotten at the academy and that she'd mentioned to Sasuke before, just that it was a very old and worn issue. When she opened it, they were greeted by a picture of the Shodaime and his wife at the founding of Konoha. "Her." Sakura pointed at the wife. "Her name's Mito, and for the life of me, I can't find her last name, as it was edited out of _every_ edition of this book that still exists, not just the censored versions we received." She put down the book on Kakashi's legs for them to read.

"Uhm, that woman..." Naruto muttered. "She kinda looks like... You know, that woman on the picture?"

"Indeed!" Sakura confirmed, smile growing prouder. "I'm getting to that. Okay, so this is Mito, she is from Uzushiogakure, and that's why we have that symbol all over Konoha, to honor her. She's basically the founding mother. Which of course means she _can't_ have been as unimportant and insignificant as the newer books make her out to be, where they only ever mention her first name and no last name whatsoever. This one at least has it blackened out."

"It's kinda long," Naruto noted, pointing at the black spot under the picture before her first name.

"That it is," Sakura agreed. "Now, do you know what this woman also was?"

"Don't bother with leading questions," Sasuke groaned. Sakura was having way too much fun. This could only end badly. "Just tell us and get this over with."

"She was the first ever recorded jinchuuriki of the nine-tailed fox," Sakura obliged. "So there definitely has to be a connection. These are the only solid facts I can give you, everything else is... Pretty good assumptions." She opened another folder. "What I can tell you is that Mito lived for a long time, and died just about a decade and a half before we were born and shortly after her home village was destroyed. Shortly before that, a girl from Uzushiogakure was brought to Konoha, she was in a graduating class with the Fourth, which is why I found her really fast, and her last name is blackened out on the official record, but seems to have the same amount of signs to it as Mito’s. Her first name is Kushina." She loosened a sheet of paper from the folder and handed it over to Sasuke and Naruto. "Here's her academy record."

"That's _definitely_ the woman from the picture," Naruto pointed out before Sasuke could. The file had a picture on it that did indeed show a younger version of the woman Naruto was referring to.

"And here's the kicker," Sakura came to a close, apparently. "The only thing known to break the seal on you according to my records is giving birth. Now remind me, what happened on the day you were born?"

Naruto stared at her in horror at that, but Sakura didn't seem to notice, too caught up in her revelations.

"...Are you saying?" He then gasped, clutching his mom's academy record so hard it crumbled a little.

"It gets better," Sakura said, smirking. "You know how when the Third sealed away Orochimaru's arms, the seal was so powerful that it cost his life? I think it's safe to assume the Yondaime died in a similar fashion."

Sasuke had to suppress a groan as Naruto just _stared_ and Sakura _beamed_ and didn't get what she had basically just said, too caught up in her joy at discovering this against the odds.

"So you're saying..." Naruto managed to croak out after a while. "That I basically killed my parents?"

"...No?" Sakura said taken aback and a shade worried, finally having noticed that Naruto was visibly upset. "That's... Not what I said at all."

"Right," Naruto snarled. "The thing inside me did it. Because I was born, big difference."

"It is!" Sakura insisted, voice a bit higher now. "Naruto, you... you can't blame yourself for that! It's not your fault you were born!"

"But it's _because of that_ that all these people died," Naruto said bitterly. "My own parents, Iruka-sensei's parents... All these people... No wonder nobody ever told me about this."

"How long have you known?" Sasuke asked, somewhat curious. When you actually had confirmation, it was quite easy to figure out that Naruto had a passenger. A passenger who seemed eager to pay them all a visit if they let Naruto get any more upset, actually.

"Since graduation, basically," Naruto answered. "Nobody bothered to tell me until this Mizuki freak... Well, whatever. Now I know why." He laughed, in a dark and twisted way that wasn't Naruto at all. "Yeah, I get it. And here I thought it had just been a random attack or something, but this way, people really _were_ right in blaming me for it, weren't they?"

"Absolutely not!" Sakura insisted. "Naruto, please, stop talking like that, you can't..."

"Sakura, this happened _because I was born_ ," he snarled. "How much more directly to blame can I be?"

"You are the last one to blame for being born!" Sakura argued.

"Well, seems to me everyone else involved kinda winded up dead _because of me_ ," Naruto pointed out. "So there you go."

"It's still ridiculous to blame yourself for that," Sakura sighed, and started massaging her temples to ward off one of these headaches she was prone to get under stress. Sasuke could tell this was not getting them anywhere productive, so he intervened again.

"What's ridiculous is to develop a seal that can only be broken by giving birth, and then using it exclusively on women," he pointed out the obvious. Sakura and Naruto stared at him in bewilderment that momentarily distracted them from their drama.

"That... Really makes no sense," Sakura agreed. "It doesn't even add up; Mito must have given birth at some point, too, otherwise Tsunade-sama wouldn't be here today, would she? And yet there is only one documented attack of that thing... Uh, no offense." She added and looked at Naruto nervously. Sasuke rolled his eyes. Really? That would convince Naruto that he and the fox inside him were separate entities. Great work.

...And now he was more personable than Sakura. If it wouldn't have been noticeable and inappropriate, Sasuke might have thrown a fit over that realization.

"So what now?" He asked instead.

" _Now_ I really need to talk to someone," Naruto muttered. "Did you get anything on my dad? Like, to prove that it's actually the Fourth?"

"Nothing foolproof," Sakura said carefully, clearly still a little shocked by Naruto's reaction to her revelations. "But, well... That book I gave you? Did you read it?"

"Yes," Naruto answered through grit teeth. "It's actually pretty good, once you get over the fact that the Pervert wrote a book and had the character named after me."

"Not quite," Sakura corrected. "The book came out a few months before you were born, and ah... You are among the only people who actually consider it good." She put forward some sort of gossip magazine and opened it on a bookmarked page that seemed to have reading recommendations on it. "The other one being, well, the Fourth."

"Alright, that's it," Naruto said flatly, snatched the magazine with the academy record of who was most likely his mother and the book in question. "I'm off. I _really_ need to talk to someone." He got up and went to leave the hospital room. Sakura jumped up as well.

"You mean Jiraiya?" She asked. "Naruto, be careful, we're not supposed to know any of this..."

"I don't care," he answered. "I'm not gonna go shout it from the rooftops or something, but the Pervert _really_ owes me some answers, wouldn't you agree?"

"I... suppose," Sakura relented after exchanging a glare with Sasuke, who had grabbed her wrist to keep her from stopping Naruto. This was something he needed to do, he fucking deserved to do after all that shit had come to light. Naruto however remained in the doorway for a few more seconds, before awkwardly turning towards them again.

"And, uh, you guys..." He squirmed in place uncomfortably. "About the whole demon fox inside of me thing... You're just... Cool with that?"

Sakura looked at Sasuke warningly. He rolled his eyes in response. As if he'd care either way.

"Doesn't change a thing," Sakura then assured Naruto. "You're still you, and also, we kind of guessed there was something special about you. Most people don't glow orange when things get bad."

"Alright," Naruto muttered, swallowing hard. "Can't quite say whether that makes it better or worse... See you." And with that, he was gone.

Sakura looked at the closed door he had left through uncomfortably for a while, then sighed deeply and sat back down on her chair, the reduced findings of her research around her on Kakashi's body.

"Well that just went over swimmingly, didn't it," she snorted. "Do you think Kakashi can hear us?"

"You're the medic," Sasuke pointed out dryly. "You tell me."

"Comas are weird," she said wearily. "Sometimes the patients hear everything; sometimes they don't, so it's more of a philosophical question, really." She hovered a hand over Kakashi's head, emanating a slightly green glow. "I can't tell any changes in brain activity, but that doesn't mean anything necessarily. I'm bad with brain waves."

"I hope he did," Sasuke then said bitterly. "He has just as much to answer for as Jiraiya."

"True," Sakura agreed and started gathering her materials. "But the whole thing was kept so much under wraps that I think he would have sat up straight if he'd heard anything." She bit her lips. "Do you think Naruto will be okay?"

"Sure," Sasuke answered and rolled his eyes. "It's not like you told him anything surprising at this point."

"What do you mean?" She asked, frowning. Probably had been too caught up in getting to reveal her research to notice.

"He wasn't surprised when you said the fox killed his parents," Sasuke pointed out. "He lived with that thing inside of him all his life; he probably figured something like that out ages ago."

"But that's... horrible," Sakura sighed, more defeated than distressed. "And he never talked about this with anyone! How does he..." She shot a quick glance at Sasuke, sighed again and shook her head. "Never mind."

"You did what you had to," he then offered, both to keep her from going into that direction, and because Sakura was getting that _everything is my fault I am the worst person on the face of the earth_ look again. "He needed to know this."

"I... Suppose," she sighed. "Still, the way I went about telling him... Ugh, I was so happy to have found out all these things that I didn't even consider they might hurt him!"

"So what would you do instead?" He asked sharply. "Sugarcoat it some more? Keep it from him for his own good? That makes you no better than the bastards who kept the truth from him to begin with." Sasuke glared at Kakashi for good measure.

"No," she admitted and sighed. "I guess that would make it worse..."

"I'm not saying what you did was perfect," he clarified since she suddenly was getting an overly _fond_ look on her face. "You _were_ too cheerful about the whole thing. But at least you got the facts out as they are." That didn't make her fond half-smile go away.

"You can stop being nice any minute now," she chuckled while he glared in Kakashi's general direction some more to avoid looking at her weird look. "It's kind of weird."

"I'm not being nice, I'm being practical," he clarified sharply. "If you wallow in self-pity for the next few weeks, we're going to get no training done. Naruto probably won't be any good in any case, so at least you need to be in a state to deliver."

"I still _do_ owe you a beating, don't I?" She said, sounding amused rather than crestfallen as he would have expected. Well, some time ago. Now he would have expected her to be hurt but be able to cover it up better, but she didn't look or sound hurt at all. Damn it. "I mean, sure, we did that to get the archive worker off our backs, but well..." She gathered her belongings and got up to leave. "I'll see you at training tomorrow, trying not to _wallow_ too much."

"Hn," he made approvingly but sounding annoyed at the same time, or so he hoped. Apparently he failed, as Sakura chuckled again and paused in the door way just as Naruto had. _Smiling_.

"It's funny how this keeps happening," she mused, cocking her head. "In hospitals, of all places. But, well, I'll take what I can get so... Thank you!"

"Stop blowing this out of proportion," he groaned, shaking his head. What, did she really think he was doing this for _her_?

"Mmmmhm," Sakura only commented, smile now more akin to a smirk as she left the room. Leaving Sasuke alone with Kakashi's unconscious body. Pondering what the hell he was doing wrong for her to... Just not get what he was doing at all.

Well. At least a cheerful Sakura was still better than a depressed one.

 

* * *

 

It was days like this when living with his... Passenger was a bit more difficult than usual.

Sure, having a giant monster in your belly was never actually _easy_ , but you learned to ignore it and... Uh... peacefully coexist or something over time. You forgot it was there, basically. Like with the bandage you wrapped around your leg so the Kunai pouch doesn't chafe - kind of restricting at first, but you don't notice it anymore after wearing it longer. Or like underwear.

Sometimes it would try to talk to you, like when you were angry at someone or everyone in general, but Naruto had also learned to ignore that over time. And sometimes it kinda took over when you were really angry or about to die or both. That sucked, but he'd kinda learned to deal with it as well. Really, usually it was no bother at all. Not ever since the Pervert had taught him how to control just how much of the thing to let take over.

Well, and there was his current problem. It turned out that being angry at his passenger _personally_ made the thing extremely chatty. And being angry at Jiraiya, the person who taught him how to deal with it, didn't help, since being angry made him want to do what Jiraiya told him to do a lot less. Like calm down.

Like hell he would _calm down_ for Jiraiya's benefit! He had lied to him all the time they'd known each other! Sort of. He'd tried to talk his way out of it by claiming he never really lied - he just didn't tell the truth either. Or tell him anything, really. Which of course was _totally_ different.

But the less he calmed down, the more chatty the fox got. And the more chatty the fox got, the more Naruto wanted to actually listen to what it had to say. And that usually led to episodes of glowing orange and destroying shit. So he _needed_ to calm down not for Jiraiya's benefit, but for, like, the benefit of _the entire world_.

No pressure.

Ha! Pressure! That was like a _thing_ Jiraiya had tried to explain to him - how his dad hadn't wanted him to know his identity because apparently, having a famous dad who saved everyone would be _too much pressure_ for him to handle. Bullshit. That might have actually given him some sort of... Uh... Confidence? Like, knowing that he belonged in this village, genetically and all that, while people kept shunning him for _reasons_ nobody ever bothered to explain until Mizuki happened.

Being treated like a criminal since like forever without even knowing what you were charged with (...that was the expression law people used, right?) was not fun. Getting confirmed that yes, you were actually the sort of criminal everyone assumed you to be sucked even more. And suddenly he couldn't blame Iruka-sensei for not taking care of him more than he had anymore - he'd killed the dude’s parents, for fuck's sake! Of course he only wanted as little to do with him as his conscience permitted! Dammit, Iruka-sensei probably was the best person he'd ever met, all things considered. Naruto needed to be nicer to him in the future.

The Pervert on the other hand had no fucking excuse. Dammit, he was swearing too much, but it was totally appropriate right now! Not only had he not killed any of Jiraiya's parents, if Naruto understood anything about how these things worked, the guy had been elected his _godfather_ by his parents or something. And godfathers were supposed to take care of you when your parents couldn't, right? Well, apparently following that wish of theirs hadn't been as easy as following their wish of just not telling him shit. Wasn't it funny how these things worked out?

No. No it wasn't funny at all. No matter how much the fox inside him kept cackling at all this, which was distracting. And yet another sign that he _needed_ to calm down, but... Ugh! It wasn't even the whole never mentioning that he'd sort of killed his own parents thing - Sakura was right, assigning the blame on that was kind of icky, but for now, the fox and him at least were one body and kind of one person and he still had been the cause of the fox getting out to begin with, right? Right. But like, he'd heard the thing talk to him for fourteen years, so the fact that his own parents were among the casualties caused by it wasn't that surprising. The only surprising thing was the extent to which his birth was involved in the entire thing, since before even the people had acted like that part had been coincidental. Well, maybe they just didn't know any better and hated on him preemptively or something. That made sense. Not.

He tore into a fistful of grass and pulled it from the ground. Well, that didn't help. He needed to hit something. Well, no, maybe _he_ didn't. Hitting things was no good way to deal with anger. That was probably what the _fox_ wanted him to do, and every time he followed its advice ended badly. It was just that the angrier he got, the more difficult it became to tell the difference between what _he_ wanted himself and what his passenger wanted. And maybe his passenger _had_ the right ideas about _some things_ , and he'd just never listened because Jiraiya told him not to, but Jiraiya was an asshole, so what did he know... Well, probably a lot more than Naruto did, but never bothered to share with him, _and that was the fucking problem_ and dammit, he was thinking in circles now. That did not make _calming down_ any easier at all.

"Naruto-kun?"

He almost jumped. Well, no, he did jump, as much as you could while sitting on the ground and attacking poor innocent grass, but, uh, yeah. He had been so absorbed in hurting that grass, or try not to hurt the grass and failing, and trying to calm down while not thinking about Jiraiya and thinking about nothing else in the process, he hadn't noticed that it had gotten dark and that Hinata-chan had sort of snuck up at him. Well, maybe she hadn't, that wasn't really her style (unless they were fighting with trees and all that, then she was _sneaky_ as hell) but it felt to him like she had and gaaah, this was confusing.

"Oh, hi!" He quacked out after getting over his shock at her sudden appearance. "What are you doing here?"

"Uhm..." She started twiddling with her fingers as she so often did when talking to him. It was a little weird, but also kind of fun to watch, and she was kind of cute doing it. "I... Saw you here, and thought... Well... Are you... okay?"

"Huh?" He asked, trying to sound like he had absolutely no idea what she was talking about. Dammit, was he that obvious?

"Well, you... Sit here," she tried explaining, sounding more and more panicked with every word. "And you usually don't... Sit around alone at training grounds... At night... I mean, not that I... Uh... And you seem... Upset, somehow... I'm so sorry for assuming."

Oh, well, great. No he had made Hinata-chan feel bad, too, and she had less than nothing to do with any of this.

"Ah, that's nice of you!" He told her and smiled reassuringly to cheer her up some. "But don't worry about me, things just have been a little rough lately, you know?" He gestured at the training grounds wildly. "I mean, first you kick my ass, which was awesome of you don't get me wrong, but now Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme do that, too, and well, that just got me thinking, and... Well... You know?"

Playing the flailing idiot usually made people relax around him. And he thought it had the same effect on Hinata-chan, too, since she stopped twiddling her fingers and shifting her weight between her feet, and her shoulders slackened a little while her general posture... Straightened? Somehow? It was odd. But even odder was when she actually started talking.

"I accept the fact that you do not want to talk about whatever bothers you," she said, her voice distant like he'd never heard it before, but a little strained, too, like she was holding something back, maybe? "However, I would prefer if you just said so in the future instead of lying to me."

He gaped at her. Had he just... Made Hinata-chan _angry_? And kind of hurt her, too? By... By _lying_? But he had just wanted to... Make her stop worrying about him, and... Uh... Well... He had still _lied_ to her, hadn't he? And that made him... Well.

It made him burst out into bitter laughter, for one. The whole thing was just waaay too ridiculous now! Here he was, moping about how Jiraiya had technically kinda lied to him all his life, and then turning around and _fucking lying_ to the first person to come around and care about him, like besides Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme, but those two weren't around right now so whatever, for some stupid reason that sounded like it came straight from Jiraiya's own mouth. Just awesome.

Hinata-chan meanwhile was looking at him even more distantly, but a little... Well, her hands were shaking, for one. Not twiddling like she usually did, but clutching each other and shaking, and so was her lower lip before her mouth became all tight as if she had bitten on it. Aw, damn, had he made her _cry_ now?

"Hey, Hinata-chan, I'm sorry!" He tried to console her, but Hinata-chan had already bent over into a bow.

"I am sorry to have troubled you like this and wish you luck with whatever ails you," she said stiffly, before standing up straight and turning on her heel in one swift and kind of elegant motion before walking away.

"Wait!" Naruto called after her before really thinking through what he wanted to say, but at least she stopped in her tracks. "Uh, look, this stuff is... Complicated."

"You don't have to - " She turned around hesitantly.

"After being an ass to you like that? Yeah, I kind of do." Naruto patted the ground next to him. "Uhm, is there anyone around who could overhear this? Because it's... Well, top secret, I guess?"

Hinata-chan briefly activated her Byakugan (which looked kind of creepy but also really cool in a way), shook her head and came back to where he was sitting before sitting down next to him. Well, not directly next to him, with a bit of a distance, but hey, at least she came back in didn't look as stiff and hurt now anymore, and that was worth something, right?

"Okay, uh, first, I'm really sorry about the laughing," he tried to start over, which was somehow easier while not looking at her. "I mean, it wasn't because of you, I'd never make fun of you like that, I swear! Things just have been... Kind of bad today." Well that was probably the understatement of the year.

"I shouldn't have pried," Hinata said, her voice sounding even tinier than usual. "I'm really sorry, you don't have to tell me anything if it might get you into trouble..."

"Nah, turns out, by now I really want to," he said, surprising himself as much as her, judging by the surprised sound she made. Uh, yeah. "Okay, so... With your Byakugan... You can kind of see inside of people, right?"

"I can see their chakra," Hinata explained. "I-in its most basic form, that is. And I can see it through solid objects within a certain radius."

"Right, so, uh..." Well, what could he say, really? The best way was probably just to burst out with it. "When you look at me that way, is there anything strange about me or my chakra or whatever?"

"Well..." She sounded a bit unsure. "Not... most of the time."

"But there's something weird about it some of the time?" He concluded. For what it was worth, Hinata-chan seemed about as comfortable talking about this as he was on a good day. Then again, after having it sort of pressured out of him by Sakura-chan earlier (yes, it had been important for her research and also he supposed his teammates kind of had deserved to know why he sometime glowed orange for some time now, but still), talking about his passenger (though maybe not with those exact words) felt a lot easier all of a sudden than it usually had.

Well, and also, if Sakura-chan and the bastard hadn't reacted badly, Hinata-chan would never, right? She was probably the nicest person he knew!

"When you fought Neji-nii-san in the Chuunin exams," Hinata-chan continued, her voice shaking a bit. "It... Well, it seemed as if you had another source of chakra independent of your regular circulation, which Neji-nii-san had cut off completely at the end."

"Also, I probably glowed orange, right?" Naruto assumed. He hadn't really been able to check at the time, what with the fight going on and all. Hinata-chan nodded. He nodded back. Thinking about it, the fact that he wasn't quite alone in his body had been so plain obvious, it was kinda weird Sakura-chan only figured it out so late. Well, maybe she had assumed it before and just waited for him to tell her more or something... And also, she hadn't exactly been there at the times he went full orange, had she? Sure, during the fight with Neji, together with the entire village... And that time with Haku and Zabuza on the bridge, but hell, they'd both been a little distracted by the fact the Sasuke had sort of died seconds earlier, so he gave her a pass there.

"So, uh..." Now to find a good way to lead over to the main part of what he had to say. "Uhm... How much do you know about the giant fox that attacked the village the day I was born?"

She frowned.

"Just that," Hinata-chan answered carefully. "They never told us more about it, as far as I recall."

"Right, well..." Naruto sighed deeply and let himself fall back to lie on the grass. "Turns out there's a way to seal that into people. Actually, according to Sakura-chan, there used to be an entire clan who did just that, and had red hair and super regenerative abilities and were good at sensing stuff or something. Whatever. They all died, except for my mom. And, uh, I guess the first Hokage was married to one of them, too, if I got that right..."

"I... See..." Hinata-chan said slowly. "That... Is a lot of information they didn't teach us in the academy."

"No kidding," Naruto snorted, trying not to sound too bitter. "I'm getting to why in a second. So, I don't know who invented that, or why they did it that way, but the only way to break the seal that keeps the fox inside someone is to give birth, apparently. So just guess why the thing attacked on my birthday. And why probably my mom died in the process. Now that I think of it, Sakura-chan really had nothing to say on that subject..."

"I am so sorry," Hinata-chan whispered. "And you... learned about all that today?" She sounded genuinely horrified, which made Naruto feel sorry for dragging her into this. And maybe a little better about himself. At least she _got_ why he was upset.

"I'm not even done," he said, but tried to sound more gentle and less pissed. "I mean, that's bad enough, right? But also, sealing the fox back inside someone makes the person doing the seal die. So that's how my dad died. And the third Hokage, actually! Though he only sealed away Orochimaru's arms, which is kinda lame in comparison, but hey, he was an old man... And oh, by the way, my dad was the fourth Hokage and so I'm also responsible for the old man having to take over when Orochimaru attacked and dying then. Wow, didn't even think of that until now."

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself about this," Hinata-chan said softly. "You can't be blamed for something you had no control over."

"Try tell that to the villagers who treated me like crap," Naruto scoffed.

"I did," she said softly. "I-I mean... Not in those exact words... I mean, I-I had no idea until now but..." The fact that she was back to twiddling her fingers was probably a good thing, Naruto decided. Even if she stuttered again. Hm. Hinata-chan cleared her throat. "I'm sorry, this isn't about me, please continue."

"Right, you've always been nice to me, even when people made fun of you for that," he suddenly remembered. "Aw, Hinata-chan, I'm sorry, I didn't think..."

"It's okay, I'm the one who should be sorry," she interrupted him, kinda. She wasn't exactly loudly talking over him like people usually did, she was really quiet actually, but somehow he heard her anyway. "F-for making you talk about this in the first place, I mean," she continued, voice a little higher. "And then interrupting you for a silly reason... You weren't finished, right?"

"Ah, no," Naruto admitted. "It's okay though, you didn't make me do anything. And honestly? I've dealt with being blamed for random things all my life, and when you grow up without your parents, everyone hating you and a weird thing inside you that you know is there but have no idea what it is... Well, honestly, I wasn't _that_ surprised that that's how my parents died. Oh yeah, I only found out about the fox at graduation. Accidentally. Long story. And I wouldn't know about any of this if Sakura-chan hadn't done some weird, probably illegal research that Tsunade-baa-chan helped her with. I think. She talked about it a lot; I don't quite remember everything..."

"You mentioned something about a reason nobody told you about this before?" Hinata-chan brought him back on track. He laughed bitterly.

"Oh, yeah, there is one. I think. The Pervert, I mean, ah, Jiraiya, wasn't really clear about it," he continued.

"So you already confronted him?" Hinata-chan deduced.

"I yelled at him, he said cryptic stuff about promises to the dead and just... _Left_ ," Naruto summed up their brief conversation that afternoon. "Just like that! No _sorry I lied to you_ , or a _sorry I'm kind of your godfather but still abandoned you for twelve years and then only ever took care of you by accident_ or something. Nothing!"

"He's your godfather?" Hinata-chan asked for clarification.

"I guess." He shrugged. "My dad named me after his favorite character in one of Jiraiya's books. Uh, not a porn book, luckily. Not a single porn scene in that one, even. That's probably why it never sold well; the Pervert's regular writing is kinda boring and predictable... It’s still good, though. Has a nice message."

"You spent a lot of time with Jiraiya-sama, didn't you?" She asked. "You went on that journey together almost two years ago..."

"Yeah, that," Naruto confirmed. "Like, in total we spent about two years together, just the two of us. First when he trained me for the chuunin exams, then when we went to find Granny, uh, Tsunade I mean, and then when we left to train again... And it's not like I never asked him if he knew about my parents! He just always shut me down somehow, and wouldn't even really _say_ anything until I threw the book at him... Uhm..." He sighed and lay down on the grass. "But I suppose Kakashi-sensei also never owned up to anything. I mean, he can't right now because coma. But my dad was his sensei, and he never mentioned that when actually was being a sensei to us. I mean, Sakura-chan and me, he was a sensei to Sasuke a lot. But I dunno, that's not... I mean..." He glanced at where Hinata-chan was sitting nervously, trying to find a way to voice what he was thinking without revealing too much. Telling her about his own personal history was one thing, right? He was allowed to do that, it was his story and his personal bullshit, but talking about what they'd seen in Kakashi's... Uh... Mind? Or something? That was something else entirely. "Okay, so turns out there are _other_ things Kakashi-sensei should have told us about so I'm more mad at him for that, and not about my parents. And at least he never pretended, you know? I never asked, he never lied, that's _fine_. Like, fine- _er_ than what the Pervert did, do you get what I'm trying to say here?"

"You and Jiraiya-sama were a lot closer than you ever were with Kakashi-san," Hinata-chan answered.

" _Close_ doesn't even... I mean..." He had to gulp now. This was the hard part. Well, harder somehow than the rest. "I mean... Sometimes, I... I kinda thought that I was... I dunno, like a son to him? Or at least some sort of nephew? I mean, he was a terrible role model, of course, and it's not like I have anything to compare it to, but, ugh... It just _felt_ that way, you know? Like I was the son he never had or some dramatic stuff like that, I don't know." Breathing became hard now, but dammit, he was too angry to cry. "Well, turns out I was wrong about that. That was my dad to him, and I'm just... Some kind of obligation that he inherited or something. No idea."

"Naruto-kun..." Now Hinata-chan sounded upset again, wasn't that just great? "Don't say things like that!" She then insisted and to his total surprise reached out and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Just because Jiraiya-sama... He made a promise to your father before he died? Is that it?"

"Pretty much," Naruto answered, a little distracted by the fact that she was holding his hand which was _so not like her_ , but, like, not in a bad way. "Something about not telling me about my dad so there won't be some sort of pressure on me to live up to how awesome he was or something, or so I won't grow up to be a dick because my dad was a hero of some kind. And so was my mom, I think. Or I'm just going to assume that until someone tells me something else because why not. It was cryptic and made no sense, and whatever the reason was, it just... Why is keeping a promise to a dead person more important than... Damn, this sounds horrible, but, I was really upset by never knowing anything about my parents, you know? I didn't even have a picture!"

"But it _was_ a promise he made," Hinata-chan repeated. "Would you have wanted him to go back on his word?"

The way she worded that hit him like a ton of bricks. Dammit. She was right. Here he was, having preached about that as his nindo again and again... Well, who knew someone else sticking to that could make him hurt so much?

"I... Get what you're trying to say," he admitted after mulling this over for a while. "But like... I don't know. I never really thought about it that way... But is sticking to principles like that really more important than people? Like, living ones?" He cringed at what he thought of next. "Or do I just think that because in this case, people is _me_ and _I'm_ the one hurting from this, and that's why nobody should have principles?"

"You are hurt and upset," Hinata-chan answered softly. "And rightfully so. But you're... You're a good person, Naruto-kun, so I wouldn't worry too much about that." She squeezed his hand _which she was still holding_ again.

"Well, you're pretty amazing, too," he pointed out before thinking about it at all. The quiet but still audible squeaking sound she made at that scared him a little. "For listening to me whine about all this, I mean." Gah, that sounded horrible. "Well, and in general, too, but, you know..." He cleared his throat. "Yeeaah..."

After the time it apparently took her to register his words fully, Hinata-chan withdrew her hand from his to start twiddling her fingers again, which kind of bothered him a little. He couldn't quite figure out why, though.

They sat in silence for a while then. Naruto wasn't really sure whether this was a nice silence, or whether to feel bad about it, but at least to him, it kinda felt like a nice one. Much nicer than anything else he could be doing right now, at least. Like sitting alone at home and still be angry. That was just the thing - he wasn't really angry anymore. Well, he was, but not as much, and little enough for his passenger to kindly shut up. Hopefully it would stay that way, when... Ugh, they had training tomorrow, didn't they?

"What am I going to do?" He muttered, shaking his head. "Training is going to suck now. But I can't just pretend like nothing changed, can I?"

"I suppose not," Hinata-chan answered. "And I don't think you should, but..." She paused and breathed in audibly, like bracing for something. "I think you... Owe it to yourself to at least... Try to forgive Jiraiya-sama. I don't believe that will be easy for you, but you should try. For your own sake, seeing how much you care about him."

"Bleh, I guess you're right," he admitted, even though he really didn't feel like forgiving the Pervert any time soon.

"Another consideration," she then spoke up again. "Usually, people are more likely to offer information when the other party is calm and not throwing books at them, so your chances of getting Jiraiya-sama to talk about your parents are much higher that way."

"That's... Sneaky," Naruto said and whistled through his teeth in admiration. "Seriously. But I like it. Where did you get that from?"

"We learned it at the academy," Hinata-chan answered promptly.

"Well, I guess that's what I get for not paying more attention," he snorted. "Thanks. Being sneaky about it makes thinking about forgiving him a lot easier somehow. Less like I'm just trying to be the bigger person here. Which I'm usually all for, don't get me wrong, but in this case, I kinda don't feel like he deserves it."

"I understand," Hinata said softly. "I'm sure your usual moral compass will reassert itself as soon as you work through this. Which might take a while, of course. You’re completely justified in needing time to come to terms with things."

"Thank you," he sighed. "Really, so much, for all of this... You're awesome at this, you know? The whole listening and saying things that make me feel better..." He had to laugh a little, despite himself. "It's almost scary, you know?"

"You're welcome," she said, sounding kind of proud. "And you... You can come to me with these things anytime."

Well, he just might. It was weird, really. Before this... Uh... Conversation, he would never have considered talking to Hinata about serious things at all. It's not like she usually was the talkative type to begin with. But maybe not saying much made you better at listening... And making other people feel better. Hm. Maybe she was practiced in this, somehow? Like, listened to other people about their troubles a lot? Somehow the thought bothered him, which was stupid. And yet it did. Weird.

"Damn, it's gotten really late, hasn't it?" He remarked before he had to think about that more. "Doesn't your family get scared when you stay out so long?"

"Ah..." She sounded a bit caught and turned her head a little to the side and away from him. "Don't worry about that..."

 

* * *

 

 

"Sooo..." Tenten said, crossing her arms behind her head and drawing out that syllable for all it was worth. "You know what's funny?"

"Hn," Neji grunted, arms crossed in front of his chest, leaning against a tree, a vein pulsating near his temple that had nothing to do with his Byakugan for a change.

"I can't tell whether you're being a wingman or a cockblock," Tenten finished her thought, grinning maliciously at the way he cringed at that.

They were currently standing somewhere between the village proper and the areas used for training, hidden between trees and well out of earshot and regular sight of Hinata and Naruto having some... _Alone time_ , she would call it, if only to see Neji cringe some more. It was kinda cold, way after dark and she _really_ should be home herself, but hey, it was not like she was going to be missed. Unlike Hinata. Or Neji, for that matter.

"I mean on one hand, you're here so her family knows she's safe and won't throw a fit over her being not home yet or send out a search party," she continued her musings. "A very efficient search party at that, and wouldn't that result in a spectacle..." She could swear she heard a small growling noise coming from his direction, so she continued. "But on the other hand, _she_ knows you're here and that you're watching whaaateeeveeer they might get up to over there, sooooo..."

"I'm _not_ watching them," Neji finally hissed and glared at her. "And they're not getting up to anything."

"See, I might believe one part of that statement without the other," she snorted. "How would you know they're not doing anything _inappropriate_ over there without watching them?"

"I know Hinata-sama," he declared. "Though being out at this hour and alone with Uzumaki is already inappropriate."

"Sure, I guess," she conceded and shrugged. "But they're not being inappropriate in the naked kind of way, are they? Not yet, anyway."

"Do you _want_ live commentary?" Neji asked her flatly.

"If it helps you get over the trauma, sure, go right ahead!" She encouraged him cheerfully. He rolled his eyes again, who got all veiny while he did so.

"They're just talking," he then assured her. "Are you satisfied now?"

"Severely disappointed, actually," she informed him and laughed. "So we're just standing here while they, what, talk about their feelings?"

"No," Neji scoffed. "I doubt they're even doing that, seeing how Hinata-sama is still conscious."

"Aw, don't be mean," Tenten chuckled. "I'm sure that should she ever get down to actually do that, she'll manage to stay conscious at least until he answers, one way or the other. After that, all bets are off, though."

Neji made a disgusted noise, breathed out purposefully the way he usually did to shut out Lee and Gai-sensei being particularly obnoxious, and closed his eyes. Tenten started humming just to annoy him.

"So if it's inappropriate for Hinata to be out alone with a boy at this hour," she chimed in again after a few moments. "Is it also inappropriate for you to be hanging out alone with me after dark?"

He opened his eyes again to glare at her, then opened his mouth, hesitated, closed it again, and rolled his eyes some more. One day, they'd get stuck like that if he kept it up.

"We're teammates," he finally managed to reply.

"And that makes it okay?" Tenten concluded. "Oh, wow, poor Hinata. Had she just been into Shino or Kiba instead, her life would have been so much simpler..."

Neji stared at her for a moment, looking bewildered in his stoic way, if that made any sense. Then he just did that forceful breathing thing again and closed his eyes some more, and Tenten suddenly felt reminded of the last time the two of them had been talking about Hinata's misguided crush on Naruto... And Neji's very odd behavior, and... What even.

"Are they still just talking?" She asked, a little less cheerful after a while. "Or did they finally shed some clothes?"

" _No_ ," Neji declared without even opening his eyes.

"Boring!" She booed. "Did they at least move closer together? Can you read anything in their body language?"

"They're talking," he repeated. "Nothing more. A bit more comfortably than at the beginning, perhaps."

"Well that's at least some sort of progress," she sighed exuberantly. "Hey, do you think they'll name one of their children after you for enabling this sort of meeting?" The actual snarl that one incited would be enough to keep her in a good mood for the rest of the week

"You are losing all attachment to reality," Neji kindly informed her after doing his breathing thing a few times.

"And you look like you're about to burst an aneurysm," Tenten kindly returned the favor.

"What exactly is keeping you here anyway?" He asked her, sounding less annoyed than she would have expected him to. Maybe he was taking her implied advice about bad mood, frowning and eye rolling leading to aneurysms to heart or something.

"Why, the pleasure of your company of course," she answered without missing a beat. "And these riveting conversations we're having!" Well, if she was honest, the look he was giving her now was what made her week. And probably several weeks to come. Really, the way he looked at her, it was surprising he hadn't just toppled over from sheer... Indignation, probably. Yes, definitely indignation, what else would it be, anyways?

"You can't be serious," Neji managed to point out after getting over whatever had just struck him. Tenten shrugged.

"Well it's either that or an unhealthy preoccupation with other people's love lives," she explained. "Which, granted, beats contemplating the lack of one of my own, but hey, you tell me what's more likely."

"I'd rather not," he sighed, in a way that didn't even sound indignant anymore, more like... Accepting the fact that the reality of being his cousin's bodyguard while she was sweet talking her crush sucked. Yes. That. Which conveniently left them where they had started and not in an awkward silence. At all.

"It appears they are done," Neji said after a while of that not awkward silence between them.

"Dirty!" Tenten was quick to comment with somewhat faked enthusiasm to make the situation less awkward, ironically.

" _No_ ," Neji clarified sharply. She stuck out her tongue at him for good measure, and after his obligatory eye-rolling at that, it wasn't long until Hinata had made her way to them.

"I am... Sorry to have kept you waiting," she greeted them, and Tenten just inferred that under Neji's purposefully neutral glance and her own shit-eating grin, the other girl was growing several shades redder with every word, but it was too dark to tell for sure.

"Aw, don't worry about it," Tenten assured her. "I mean, on my behalf, at least. Your cousin has kept me thoroughly entertained, though he might be slightly worse for wear due to annoyance by now."

From what she could make out in the dark, Hinata smiled at her for that. In an uncomfortably knowing kind of way. Which just might have been her own version of a shit-eating grin, if Tenten had learned anything at all from studying Hinata's demeanor for a few years now.

"I'm glad _you_ were here to keep him company regardless," Hinata then said so fondly, it made Neji do his breath-thing once more, while Tenten just needed a moment to shove away all the implications of that sentence. And fought down the urge to applaud Hinata, which she would have done had that comment been directed at just about _anyone_ else. This way it was just... Laughably baseless. And she was just about ready to actually laugh at all of the implications, when Neji finally detached himself from his tree and now effectively glared at Hinata, which had been a rare occurrence ever since he'd gotten over his raw hatred for her.

"We should have been home hours ago," he flatly informed his cousin, who made a sound that might have been a giggle.

"You're right," Hinata sighed, still smiling, and bowed towards Tenten. "A pleasant evening, Tenten-san."

"Can't get any better than yours has been," Tenten muttered, feeling defensive now for some reason, and hoping that got Hinata properly embarrassed again. The quiet giggle was a good sign, at least. And hey, Neji nodded at her instead of saying goodbye just as always, so, uh, things were still normal, right?

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So since I assume that the majority of readers here are part of the SasuSaku fandom, this is for all of you especially. We need the fluff. All of it. Even if only a fracture of this chapter's fluff content is about them. 
> 
> Writing that scene with Naruto and Hinata was A BITCH. I mean, I adore the idea of them as a pairing, I just never really dug it the way I dig SasuSaku or NejiTen, yet them having this conversation was absolutely necessary in regards to the plot, even if it makes me feel a little dirty. Why do I write NaruHina Fluff? IT'S NOT LIKE THEY NEED IT, AM I RIGHT?!
> 
> Alright, so. I considered ending this chapter after Naruto left the hospital. I kept it whole because of thematic reasons. I mean, I talked about the romantic focus in this before, but just because this is three probably more or less soon to be couples interacting one after another doesn't exactly mean they would have a theme connecting them. But they do! Now hear me out:
> 
> Two people are in the middle of having an epiphany about their feelings.  
> Two people are firmly done with any kind of epiphany necessary on the subject.  
> Two people are too ass-deep in denial to realize what's going with and around them. 
> 
> So that's a thing. I won't make any promises as to when the next chapter is going to happen. We're about to shift over into act three of five this thing has, a lot of transitional work has to be done and there are still loose ends to tie up before that. Kakashi needs to get out of his coma, for one. 
> 
> So I hope you'll all be around when that happens, whenever it may be :)


	19. Ghosts That We Knew

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Kakashi wakes up. Things are addressed. Training grounds destroyed. And then we can finally move on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that it is both somewhat early to post a chapter and kind of late. I apologize, again, life happens and all that. This chapter FINALLY marks the end of the beginning, if we went with a three act structure. But we're classical ancient Greek here and so it marks the end of the second act out of five. I once learned this was called peripety and later that that wasn't the case. But if you take peripeteia as the "plot twist" that reverses the situation as it was during the exposition of act one and gets the ball for the rest of the plot rolling, I do think this counts as that. I mean, it's not quite as on the nose yet as it is during traditional plays and all that, but I like the term and think it can be applied here.
> 
> Don't look at me like that, my hobby is writing, of course I'm a bit of a literature and literature history nerd. Also I like over-analyzing and things that defy Hollywood's three-act structure.

**19\. Ghosts That We Knew**

"So... This is weird," Sakura noted, after she had been sitting on the grass of their usual training spot for about half an hour. With her were Naruto and Sasuke, who had both shown up on time. Missing was their sensei. As in, Jiraiya in addition to Kakashi. "Naruto, did you... I don't know. Any idea where Jiraiya-sensei might be?"

"He looked fine when I saw him," Naruto said, looking a bit sheepish, but in an altogether better mood than he had yesterday. "Pissed, maybe, because I threw a book at him and yelled a lot, and then he left, but he said nothing about that being permanent..."

"You threw the book at him?" Sakura asked sharply. "Do you have... No, nevermind."

"The book is fine," Naruto pouted. "But thanks for your concern."

"That's not what I mean," she sighed. "I'm sorry about yesterday. If you want to talk about anything, well. Seems like there's time now."

"Well, if that isn't heartfelt concern," Naruto snorted. "Don't worry Sakura-chan, I'm fine."

"That's good," she said relieved. "So... Anything else for us to do while we wait?"

"We could just sparr," Sasuke offered. "It's not like Jiraiya has other plans for us."

"Oh, yay, sparring. Against the two of you. How exciting," Naruto muttered. "I mean, no offense guys, but... We've been doing that a lot, haven't we? I mean it's either that or you two go off and practice genjutsus and I sparr with Hinata-chan and her team..." He cleared his throat there for some reason. "Not that that's not fun and all, but... It's getting old."

"Don't you dare," Sasuke said darkly. "I fought the two of you for the last two weeks, when neither of you were capable of doing anything. Now that that shit has been dealt with and you two might even put up a fight again, you want to stop? No."

"Well, you're both not wrong," Sakura had to admit. "And while I do owe you a beating, it _is_ true that the whole thing is getting old..."

"And it's not like we're really learning anything besides how to fight each other," Naruto added. Sakura wasn't quite sure why _he_ of all people was now against sparring, usually he was the enthusiastic one and Sasuke would be the one getting pissed they weren't doing anything new. And she... Well, she wasn't even sure what her standpoint usually would have been, but right now, after being buried by scrolls and books and _all of the dust_ for days on end, she just really, really didn't feel like fighting those two in a sparring match again for some reason. Like if someone had let the air out of her all of a sudden.

"I can't believe this," Sasuke said with something akin to disgust. Sakura shrugged and turned around to look for Naruto's reaction, but was immediately distracted by a slicing sound, and a second later, Sasuke had tackled Naruto to the ground and had his sword stabbed into the ground next to his head.

"Sasuke, oh my god, stop that!" Sakura yelped and jumped to her feet, while Naruto had already summoned a clone to shove Sasuke off him.

"We're sparring," Sasuke declared, glaring at both of them, eyes still black. "No slacking off, I don't _care_ if you don't feel like it."

"What, both of us?" Sakura asked in confusion, but Sasuke had already charged at her, sword first, so all that was left for her to do really was draw her tanto and counter the attack. She tried ducking away once their blades met to get a good kick in, but a Naruto clone tackled Sasuke from the side and to the ground, only to be immediately kicked off. Sasuke followed this with his housenka no jutsu, making three Narutos vanish, while the real Naruto and Sakura just barely managed to get out of reach of the small fire balls. Only to then be surprised by shuriken hidden in them.

Sakura deflected them with her tanto and didn't quite catch what Naruto did, as she charged at Sasuke again, hoping for an opening. Yet now he countered with his blade, and managed to trip her as he rolled out of the way to evade another attempt of Naruto to tackle him from the side. Sakura managed to catch her fall with her left arm, but then was pushed to the floor by Naruto's body being flung on top of her. And just when they were sorting their limbs, Sasuke's fucking sword was dangerously close to their heads and in the ground next to them again. And then there was chirping.

"Aw, shit," Sakura cursed and more out of instinct, an instinct honed by fighting Sasuke and his stupid electrocuting sword way too often, punched in the ground where the sword was stuck, making it lose contact to the ground, so the electricity couldn't be properly conducted to paralyze them anymore. Hurray for that. No hurray for the fact that this spontaneous reaction had also caused the ground under all three of them to crumble, so now they all found themselves halfway buried amidst debris.

"Did you really have to?" Naruto whined from somewhere Sakura couldn't quite tell while she was trying to dig herself out of the ground. At least she hadn't crushed anything on her body, and the lack of pained screaming from her teammates suggested they were fine, too. Less than fine were the sudden images in her head, featuring an underground hall coming down and burying a lot of people, digging Tenten out of a sunken in battle field where hundreds had died, and half of Obito's body being crushed by falling rocks. In the second it took her to shake those images off, Sasuke had his blade at her throat again. He _really_ needed to stop that. And also calm down and take this less seriously. Which gave her an idea.

The focusing part came harder to her than it used to - leaving genjutsu practice early had apparently taken its toll, dammit. Yet Sasuke seemed to find the image of her having a mental breakdown and lamenting all the occurrences she had just flashbacked to convincing enough to lay off her and relax his sword arm, while opening and closing his mouth a few times as if he was struggling to find words. Which made it all the easier for her to finally climb out of the ditch she'd gotten them all in, and wrestle the sword out of his hand before kicking him out of the ground and a few yards away, buying her enough time to drag Naruto out of the ground as well.

"So you _do_ get mean," Sasuke called from where he had gotten up again, wiping blood from his lower lip. Wow. When was the last time someone actually got injured enough to bleed during their sparring sessions? "I thought Naruto was exaggerating."

"I'm not mean, I'm deeply pragmatic," Sakura argued. "Are we done here now?"

"Oh no," _Naruto_ of all people now said, still next to her. "We're just getting started."

And then, before she knew what hit her... Well, no, she absolutely knew that it had been Naruto who hit her, albeit not strong enough to make her go down, just to stumble away from him a little. In any case, he attacked her and she was surprised.

"What the hell?" She voiced her surprise. "Is this some kind of mind control thing?"

"Nah," Naruto assured her, attempting to hit her again but this time she managed to dodge. "Sasuke tagged me or something, I don't know how this works, but it's kind of fun, don't you think?"

Instead of dignifying that with a response, she did a sweeping kick to knock him off his feet and just barely managed to turn around again to defend herself against Sasuke, using his own sword and cutting across his stomach, grazing his clothing and skin just enough to cause bleeding, but not damaging anything beyond that. She had to stab the sword into the ground herself though when Naruto tripped her and made her fall forward, and she would have fallen onto the sword instead. This way, she didn't exactly go down, but left herself open for Sasuke to not only get his sword back, but also repay her for that kick a few moments ago by doing the exact same to her. Well, no, he couldn't quite kick her as far away as she could kick him, but that didn't make it sting any less. She briefly considered going for a wounded gazelle gambit again, but Sasuke would have caught on too soon now that he had been reminded of her genjutsu skills. She had to think fast though, as both boys were charging at her again, and Naruto had duplicated himself some more. She got to her feet, leaned out of the way of Sasuke’s sword and shoved him away, only to be grabbed by the Narutos, having to squirm around, kick and elbow the lot of them until a few vanished. Being outnumbered like this really was no fun, she decided while dancing around with the Narutos and having to dodge Sasuke's sword at the same time, taking quite a few blows and cuts in the process. Why Naruto was not fighting against her with Sasuke was anyone's guess, though... Something about tagging? Working on a vague guess, she sent the tiniest of genjutsus Sasuke's way, much like when she had suggested their meeting place as the rooftop of the hospital some time ago, only that this time the word _tag_ was flashing in front of his eyes briefly.

Judging by how Sasuke immediately turned around to stab a Naruto clone instead of her, she figured this was indeed how this... Game? Was it a game? Well, impromptu and unorthodox sparring session worked. And as she got in a good hit on the still surprised Naruto, she had to admit, this _was_ kind of fun.

 

***

 

She had no concept of how much time had passed. She was hungry. Bleeding from several wounds, felt like she had bruises all over her body and boy, did she need a shower. Sakura was hiding out in a tree right now, catching her breath. She and Sasuke were currently up against Naruto, for what felt like the twentieth time or something. Naruto actually couldn't do the subtle tagging via mini genjutsu, so he either just yelled the word or did some secret hand sign after a while. Either way, it worked. They had all spent about equal time hitting each other, and without Jiraiya there to enforce rules that made fights kind of boring and predictable now that she thought about, this just was so much better. She hadn't felt this good (and in pain) in weeks.

Though looking at the training grounds... Well... Their fight had also left behind very noticeable traces. There were a few giant holes in the ground, one tree had been burned down, and the entire ground was scorched. Part of the reason it cracked to easily. Another tree had a hole through it where a chidori had gone through it which Naruto and her had thankfully been able to redirect so it didn't do more damage than that. A rasengan had been dodged, too, and hit the ground, but... That had ended up being a bad idea as it just caused a storm of debris to hit and knock back everyone involved. Not something they should try again.

Come to think of it, even though they were supposed to be fighting, she also hadn't seen Sasuke and Naruto since she withdrew into her little tree. Climbing down a few branches, she could see something vaguely orange resting in some bushes. Where Sasuke was hiding was anyone's guess.

"Are you done?" A familiar voice called from somewhere below. Oooh no. If Tsunade showed up personally to their training, something bad must have been going down. Or had gone down... Or maybe she was about to get into trouble for doing all that research after all.

"Let's call it a draw?" Naruto suggested from his bushes without coming out.

"We're constantly changing sides and ganging up on each other," Sakura called out from her tree. "How would you even determine a winner? Especially since we're _not_ taking this to last man standing, because if the last man standing is _not_ me, everyone is going to bleed out or something like that." She jumped down from the tree to where her master was standing and taking in the scenery, cringing as she put pressure on a cut down her side.

"Where _were_ you going to take this anyway?" Tsunade asked, sounding intrigued. "I mean, I really like what you've done with the place, but it seems a bit... Uncoordinated."

"Uhm..." Sakura said evasively, looking at Sasuke and Naruto who were now approaching too and not looking any better for wear than she did. "We, ah, hadn't really thought about that. This was more a... Spontaneous thing."

"Oookaaay," Tsunade said slowly, eyeing them all with mild concern. "But you're not... Fighting each other for real, right? Still a team? Still co-conspirators out to dig up this village's darkest secrets?"

"...You know about that?" Naruto asked, looking embarrassed.

"Didn't tell them all your sources, did you?" Tsunade asked Sakura with a smirk.

"No, I think I mentioned your involvement several times," Sakura clarified. "It was just probably the least interesting thing I said."

"Fair enough," Tsunade admitted and then glared at Naruto. "And even if I hadn't been involved, I've had to deal with Jiraiya for the last twenty-four hours, going on and on about how could I ever and what now and the world will end. Also, never, ever throw books at anyone. It's rude and books are precious and expensive."

"Everyone always mentions the book," Naruto muttered. "He totally had that coming, come on!"

"Maybe," Tsunade admitted. "But I don't deserve to have him moping around my office all day. Sometimes I actually need to get work done, you know?"

"Why are you here?" Sasuke asked in his usual polite fashion. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Because apparently, I can't leave you unsupervised," Tsunade answered without missing a beat and gestured at the wake of chaos and destruction around them. "Don't get me wrong, watching this is... Entertaining and I'm really proud at what you can do when we leave you off the reins. But the point of sparring is to remain physically active without sustaining any serious injuries, and well..." She gestured ad the numerous wounds they'd all sustained. "Let's just say with a lesser healer on the team, training tomorrow would be hell for all of you. I should probably consider a healing ban just so that part sets in, but, well. You most likely won't have training tomorrow to begin with."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Sasuke asked sharply. "There's hardly been training for the last few weeks; today was the first time we actually broke a sweat in ages."

"And you had to randomly attack us to provoke this," Sakura added contemplatively. "I think we've become kind of complacent, so having us... Take the day off would be counter-productive."

"Then let's hope what I have planned won't take the entire day," Tsunade said grimly. "I sure don't want it to. In any case, you three will show up tomorrow morning at ten AM at Kakashi's hospital room. Seems to be your favorite hang-out these days anyway."

"Any reason why?" Sasuke asked, sounding unconvinced.

" _Because_ ," Tsunade answered sharply, glaring at him some more. "We all need to have a serious conversation. And Kakashi just woke up."

"WHAT?!" Naruto snapped. "Why didn't you _start_ with that?! And why don't we go see him now? Come on!"

"He woke up an hour ago," Tsunade snapped right back. "We need to see whether he's going to stay awake and is mentally stable enough to handle visitors to begin with. Overloading him _now_ might just shut everything down some more. Do you want that? I didn't think so."

 

* * *

 

"Isn't it going to be suspicious if we all show up at the same time?" Naruto asked, hushing his voice, as they made their way through the hospital.

"It makes it look like we're a team and actually spend time with each other outside of training," Sakura claimed, walking with a slight limp due to overly sore muscles she had no chakra left to treat right yesterday.

"They already know we know about your parents," Sasuke added. "Not much more to suspect."

"Everyone just stick to the plan," Sakura reminded them all under her breath. "No word on the thing until we're alone with him."

"That just makes it wound even more suspicious," Naruto noted. "Guys, I feel like we're trying to bomb the hospital or something."

"Then why don't you speak a little louder?" Sakura suggested and waved at the guard before the special patients ward. He eyed Naruto and Sasuke with suspicion, but nobody had the authority to stop Sakura with anyone she brought in here, and they had been summoned by the Hokage to begin with, so there was nothing he could do.

"You're destroying the flowers," Sasuke pointed out and nodded at the bouquet in Sakura's hand. They'd all three gone to the Yamanaka flower shop to get them, and Ino had completely ignored anyone who wasn't Sasuke and specifically handed the flowers to him, so of course the first thing he'd done with them was shove them at Sakura, who was now clutching them to hide her nervousness. A little too hard, apparently.

"You want them back?" She suggested and held them out to him, which Sasuke responded to with a roll of his eyes.

“Why did we even bring flowers?” Naruto asked. “It’s not like Kakashi-sensei cans use them for anything, is it? And I don’t think he’s the type of person who just likes flowers.”

“It’s customary,” Sakura explained. “It’s just what you do when somebody’s in the hospital, okay?”

"Do you think they're actually going to tell me things about my dad?" Naruto then asked, sounding not even hopeful anymore which kind of broke Sakura's heart. "Or is this just going to be telling us to stop finding stuff out?"

"Only one way to know for sure," Sakura said as they stopped in front of the door to Kakashi's room. Naruto had just knocked one time when Sasuke directly walked in. Sakura rolled her eyes at Naruto, who grinned a little and they followed him.

Kakashi looked... Well, not worse than he had when they'd found him, or when they had had conspiratorial conversations over his comatose body, but somehow, seeing him awake and sitting up while looking so pale, worn out and still somewhat underfed made him appear even worse. At least he had had enough energy to put a mask on.

Across from the door, Tsunade and Jiraiya were sitting. And conveniently, there were three more chairs on the other side of the bed.

"Hello to you, too," Kakashi greeted them, voice a little hoarse from underuse. "Thanks for saving me."

If they hadn't looked suspicious before, the awkwardness when actually confronted with their teacher and the uneasy glances they shot each other probably would have given all three of them away. Luckily, they weren't called out on it.

"Yeah, sure, anytime," Naruto finally assured him and sat down on the chair closest to the door, apparently prepping for a dramatic exit if necessary. Sasuke moved past him and sat down as well, while Sakura put the flowers into a customary vase that was stored in a cupboard under the sink before she sat down closest to Kakashi.

"How are you feeling?" She asked, trying not to sound too much like a doctor.

"Dead," Kakashi answered. "But I suppose in too much pain for that. Not quite clear on what happened. But I'm starting to feel my limbs again."

"Progress!" Sakura chimed, trying to sound enthusiastic. "Well, it's something, at least. And not a coma anymore. So yes, progress." She didn't even know why she was stalling for time, just that for some reason, it felt essential that she did.

"Why are we here?" Apparently, Sasuke did not share her need to stall.

"Is this about my parents?" Naruto seemed to be equally eager to get to the point. Sakura suppressed a sigh. Of course the art of subtlety was entirely lost on them. Boys got more fighting classes instead. "Oh, uh, yeah, we kinda... Know about them now," Naruto added for Kakashi's benefit. "Uh, sorry?"

Sakura could have sworn Kakashi's eyes narrowed in suspicion at that, and also a little bit of fear, but luckily, that seemed entirely lost on anybody else.

"I still can't believe you let them do that," Jiraiya said accusingly and glared at Tsunade.

"I didn't _let_ them do anything," Tsunade replied, rolling her eyes. "All I did was give Sakura a reading recommendation and access to records that were semi-public anyways."

"And censored out of the history books for a _reason_ ," Jiraiya spat.

"A bullshit reason!" Naruto argued, glaring at his master.

"To _protect_ you!" Jiraiya specified angrily. "And to honor your parents' wishes. But it's not like we take either of those factors seriously anymore, is it?"

"You know, receiving special treatment is exactly what Minato didn't want for him," Tsunade mused.

"He also didn't want him to be sent out into danger to his person specifically," Jiraiya hissed.

"I think I need clarification on their information access clearance," Kakashi noted. "Were they promoted while I was comatose?"

"They get level nine clearance on Naruto's family history," Tsunade complied. "Level six on general village history by default."

"Nine and six out of what?" Naruto asked in confusion.

"Ten," Sakura answered immediately. She had level seven clearance on internal affairs. Mostly by default, since she handled a lot of Tsunade's regular paperwork. Shizune had level nine. Ten was only for Tsunade, Jiraiya and a few village elders. Getting level nine on Naruto's family history basically meant she had found out all there was to know - or at least Tsunade thought she had. Nevertheless, that sure was a bit of an ego boost.

"And on... My mission?" Kakashi asked hesitantly.

"They know the general connection to the Akatsuki but no specifics," Tsunade answered. "That puts them... I don't know, level three? Does that sound accurate?"

"That sure sounds like how much I feel I know about this," Naruto snorted. "Which is kind of bad, since I also know it _concerns_ me, doesn't it?"

"It does," Tsunade admitted. "Which is why there are several layers of security in place to make sure this stuff never gets to you. Some of which I have no control over."

"And some which you gave up the control over," Jiraiya reminded her grimly. "Not knowing about his identity, for instance."

"How does that _protect_ me?" Naruto asked bruskly.

"You can't accidentally blabber out what you don't know!" Jiraiya pointed out. "That way, nobody can overhear! So it's harder for the people after you to find out."

"Is that why you gave him the last name?" Sakura asked. "Of that one clan because of which that one village got eradicated. Because I have to tell you, if it hadn't been for the Uzumaki name, I'd _never_ have figured this out. Why not no last name?"

"We weren't actually here for that part, if you recall," Tsunade said. "Too busy getting away from all this shit, so we have no clue. It does seem incredibly stupid, though."

"Gee, thanks," Naruto snorted. "Only thing somewhat tying me to my parents is stupid, something everyone wants to hear. Right after how I basically killed them."

"Naruto..." Sakura sighed, but he just waved her off.

"It's fine, I know that's not really how these things work, don't worry, blah, blah," he assured everyone present, or at least tried to. "Still, maybe have some compassion or something."

"So, about the Akatsuki..." Sasuke now involved himself, sounding astoundingly like he was leading up to something. "We get a level three clearance on them?"

"'Getting' is a strong word," answered Tsunade, looking at him suspiciously. "It's more like, you know as much as people with actual clearance would be allowed to."

"So Naruto gets full clearance on his family history, and I don't," Sasuke summarized. Sakura groaned. There went any hope to seem nice and cooperative and getting information in return, just great. If she were ever to have any power in this village's education system, boys were so going to get additional lessons in subtlety and espionage, too.

"Well, if it cheers you up any, I'm pretty sure _I_ don't have full clearance on your family history, either," Tsunade said, sounding just as annoyed as Sakura felt. "And, you know, I spent two weeks getting all the intel this village has stored up before my inauguration. Some things are just not talked about, others were actively deleted from history. Don't ask me why, whenever I did when I was little, my grandfather answered with 'personal reasons'. Make of that what you will."

"I'm not interested in actual history," Sasuke clarified, not sounding the least bit cheered up to the surprise of none. "I want _current_ information."

"Then you'll just have to thoroughly interview yourself, since you're basically fifty percent of that," Tsunade snorted. "Look, I know you want the possible whereabouts of your brother, and why I really, _really_ can't tell you anything more about this whole shebang for reasons of international security, I can assure you that we do not know about those."

"Maybe you don't," Sasuke said angrily. "But _he_ might." He nodded at Kakashi, who had been following the exchange and looked a bit tired from trying to keep up.

"What do you mean?" Their original sensei now asked, sounding genuinely confused and a bit alarmed.

"What I _mean_ is that we broke you out of a Tsukiyomi," Sasuke hissed. "And who else out there would be able to cast that?"

"Have you ever been on the receiving end of a Tsukiyomi before?" Kakashi asked sharply. "Because if you had, you would know that this was nothing like what your brother does."

"This was _exactly_ like what Itachi does!" Sasuke insisted.

"His mission was not to track Itachi," Tsunade interrupted them. "I told you before, and this is the truth. Whatever that genjutsu was, it was probably a good imitation of an actual Tsukiyomi. We don't know, and are working on it. The last report we had on your brother, and it's been a while, had him at the completely other end of the continent, so it is _extremely_ unlikely he was involved in this. Let it go. This isn't about you, anyway."

"What _is_ this about, then?" Sakura asked quickly before anyone could set the room on fire. She did understand Sasuke's frustration, truly, but more yelling and raging _really_ wouldn't help them here.

"It's about getting on the same page in regard to Naruto's parentage," Tsunade explained. "And then making sure you guys never, ever talk to anyone about this, you understand? That is absolutely vital."

"Uh..." Naruto made, sounding extremely uncomfortable. "Why's that, exactly?"

"Because your origins and genetic abilities make you a massive target, not only for the Akatsuki, but also other interested parties," Tsunade said gravely. "And to keep from getting them too interested, we're containing the information best we can. Yes, it's a bit of an open secret within this village, and your last name is just... Why. Still, we managed to keep the information contained, so far, mostly because a lot of people who were there when everything happened are now dead. And the thing is, there are people specifically in charge of keeping the people who know about these things to a minimum. So they'd exterminate anyone who has information they're not allowed to have."

"...Like, exterminate-exterminate?" Naruto asked, getting paler by the second.

"You talked about this with someone, didn't you?" Tsunade groaned. "Oh, that's just great. Who was it?"

"I-I'd rather not say," Naruto stammered. "I mean, if... Uh... Like... No way. Also, she's totally not gonna tell, I swear, leave her alone!"

An exasperated silence followed, in which several glances and eye-rolls were exchanged and Sakura had to fight down something close to a squee.

"Well then," Tsunade sighed. "Since there are only about two girls you're on speaking terms with, I'm quite positive nobody is going to kill off the Hyuuga heiress. Good call on your part, in a strange and convoluted way."

"I totally talk to other girls!" Naruto claimed. "All the time! There's no way you can tell for sure it was Hinata-chan!"

"Then that's just what we're going to assume, since any other girl may or may not be killed for knowing what you told her," Tsunade said, rolling her eyes.

"I guess that means I don't get to tell Karin of her one long lost relative, do I?" Sakura asked sheepishly. Might as well get it all out now.

" _What_!?" Naruto positively screeched.

"I told you she got everything," Tsunade told Jiraiya triumphantly. "Level nine is now officially justified."

"You realize that's a _bad_ thing, right?" Jiraiya retorted.

"What do you mean?" Naruto elaborated on his previous question. "I'm... I'm related to _her_?"

"That was mostly a hypothesis until now," Sakura clarified and smiled at Tsunade and Jiraiya. "Thanks ever so much for confirming it. And really, it's... Well. She had a special kind of chakra and is an unnaturally talented sensor. Also, red hair. No family to speak of, handed around all her life because of her powers... It just fit, you know?"

"Okay, I'm all for ignoring _that_ ," Naruto declared, then paused. "Well, but she's family... But... Ugh, this stuff is hard."

"In any case, for now she is very much better off not knowing," Tsunade reminded them all. "And I don't think she'd appreciate the relation any more than you would, so I see no reason to fill her in just yet."

"I have another question," Sakura announced. "In my research, I found out that the seal that keeps the kyuubi inside of Naruto can only be broken by giving birth."

"If you're going to ask why the thing was sealed into women twice who then both went on to have children, all I can tell you is that they went by suitability of the host's chakra rather than by their gender," Tsunade explained. "Mito and Kushina fit the profile best and had the chakra natures, abilities and amounts most suited. Is it a security risk? Yeah, sure. But all other available hosts were apparently less likely to survive the process, and in this village, we've never been big on forcing sterilization on people."

"I get that," Sakura said. "It's just... There's only been one reported attack of the kyuubi on this village, and that happened on the day Naruto was born, which makes sense and all, but Mito must have given birth, too. I mean, you are here. So how was a breach of the seal prevented then?"

"From what I gather, there's a technique similar to the seal itself to keep that from happening, and that's what they did with my grandmother," Tsunade answered pensively. "I don't know why they didn't do it for Kushina, though. Then again, Naruto was born after every other Uzumaki had been annihilated, so maybe it was a family technique or required just a lot of them because of their special chakra natures or something like that."

"But the technique that seals the Kyuubi could be learned by outsiders," Sakura pointed out. "The Fourth used it to seal the kyuubi in Naruto, and he had at best married into the family. Also, didn't the Third use the same technique to seal away Orochimaru's arms? And he had absolutely no connection at all, did he? And what about the other villages with junchuuriki in them - Suna, for instance. How did they seal the Ichibi into Gaara?"

"Well, it turns out that when the world is being plagued by giant-ass beasts destroying everything and you know a way to keep them from doing that, you don't really keep that way to yourself," Tsunade explained.

"You just fail to mention the whole pregnancy thing, or were all other tailed beasts sealed into men?" Sakura asked for elaboration. The entire thing was fishy as hell. "And last time I checked, Gaara wasn't related to Naruto. Well, maybe he was, the red hair and all, but still, and he is a jinchuuriki, too."

"It's possible to seal them into people that do not have the Uzumaki's special brand of chakra," Tsunade said and glanced at Kakashi for some reason. "But it's even more dangerous and the hosts are usually a lot worse for wear afterwards. Look, I'm no expert, I just know that risking two women becoming pregnant seemed more worthwhile to the people here than risking going through countless bodies before one of them was compatible with the kyuubi. Call it inefficient, because when you look at the death toll the last kyuubi attack caused, the numbers just don't add up, but this village has always been based more on values than on efficiency. Anything else?"

Sakura exchanged a glance with her teammates. Neither seemed eager to speak.

"Well then," Tsunade said and forced a smile. "Then let's get to your next steps. First of all, no more poking around old records. You know what you need to know - " She gracefully ignored Sasuke's less than subtle snort. " - and the only thing you should focus on right now is preparing for the Chuunin exams."

"Kurenai has refused training you any further until those are over," Jiraiya added. "Said teaching you anything more would be detrimental to her own interests, or rather her team's interests. Go figure."

"So it's sparring with boring rules all over again?" Naruto wailed. "That's boring!"

"Well, it certainly hasn't been to your disadvantage," Tsunade snorted. "I saw them fight with the breaks off yesterday," she then informed Jiraiya.

" _What_?" He asked, looking at them accusingly.

"Calm down, they didn't _really_ try to kill each other," Tsunade assured him. "Well, they had some weird sort of system going on and ganged up on each other a lot, and caused massive destruction, but hey. It was flashy. I like flashy. Keep that up."

"When will you be ready to train me again?" Sasuke asked Kakashi directly.

"Practical training will have to wait for a while," Tsunade answered for him. "But given his current condition, he should be discharged and ready for theoretical instruction by next week."

"So then the single training continues?" Sakura asked. Tsunade suddenly grinned at her.

"Oh, yes," she answered. "And the two of us are going to have so much fun. And you guys will also spend a few hours a week catching up on your theoretical knowledge. There will be a written part to the exam again."

"Do we have to?" Naruto asked. "I mean, I didn't get anything right last time and passed anyway because of that tenth question thing, why not do that again?"

"Because the rules change every time," Tsunade answered sternly. "And that tactic won't get you anywhere this time around, trust me. And while I really, really want all three of you to make it to the third part at least, I can't just give you the answers. For multiple reasons."

"Anything else?" Sasuke asked, a little too curtly.

"Try and see whether that Karin girl has any theoretical knowledge," Tsunade answered. "And if she doesn't, well. You guys vouched for her, you catch her up. Otherwise if Asuma's team fails in the first round, it'll be all your fault. And yes, do keep her heritage a secret even from her. She's too valuable an asset and too aware of that already, there's already a risk of her selling out to someone with a better offer than what we have."

"She likes Sasuke too much for that," Naruto snorted.

"Well, if you say so," Tsunade shrugged. "You got anything?" She then asked Jiraiya. He shook his head. "Well then, I have other places to be. Behave and all that." And with these words, Tsunade got up, nodded at Kakashi and left the room. Jiraiya got up as well, but lingered at the doorway.

"Meet me for ramen tonight?" He then asked Naruto very quietly. Naruto looked at him suspiciously.

"Alright," he then agreed after a while Sakura suspected he had dragged out on purpose to enjoy Jiraiya's guilt-stricken look. Well, at least he had _some_ form of subtlety. Jiraiya nodded, looking relieved, and left as well. All their heads immediately turned to Kakashi. Kakashi looked back at them, very uncomfortable.

"You saw?" He then asked.

"Yeah," Naruto answered first. Sakura nodded. Sasuke bit his lip, looking apprehensive.

"That put you on track," Kakashi concluded. "And Tsunade and Jiraiya don't know. Do they suspect anything?"

"We told them we saw scenes from the war," Sakura explained quickly. "Which... Isn't even a lie, really."

"Why did you kill her?" Sasuke suddenly asked sharply. Sakura furrowed her brows in confusion. Sure, they hadn't entirely agreed upon what kind of question to ask, but starting like this surely wouldn't have been her call. "Was it for the eye?" Sasuke added, now sounding disgusted.

"You know about that?" Kakashi asked, narrowing the visible one.

"Itachi left me with very clear instructions," Sasuke answered, sounding impatient. "So was that it?"

"Nobody gave me any instructions, if you couldn't tell," Kakashi said, sounding sardonic. "No, that was not it."

"What do you mean about eyes?" Naruto asked. "He got that from Obito, did you forget that part?"

"You can unlock special powers for the Sharingan," Kakashi explained slowly. "By killing the person closest to you."

He left that hanging in the air for a second, and Sakura suppressed a gasp. What a horribly morbid way to unlock something... By... Trauma? Guilt? What even... And what a thing to be told by your own brother... While probably being surrounded by the corpses of your entire family... Well, that sure explained a lot about that, in a way, didn't it? But... But that also meant...

"Stop looking at me like that," Sasuke grunted. "I don't need that shit to kill my brother."

Case in point, they were all still standing.

"Sorry," Sakura muttered. "That wasn't it, really, I just... This is horrible."

Sasuke made a none-committal noise at that, as he so often did when they discussed the finer points of his situation. Seeing him every day, doing as well as he did given the circumstances, really made Sakura forget on occasion just _how_ traumatic his entire situation was. Because looking past his previous betrayal in favor for better training, and general attitude, Sasuke was... Incredibly well adjusted. Speaking of which... Well, Kakashi sure never had let any of his trauma show overly much, had her? Not even enough to... Anger bubbled up in her again as she remembered the team dynamics they had witnessed. No, no, no use being angry at a patient, but... Ugh.

"So if you had no idea about this creepy super mode unlocking stuff," Naruto picked up the previous conversation. "Why _did_ you kill her?"

"I didn’t kill her, she threw herself in front of an Attack meant for someone else,” Kakashi clarified. The way he kept emotion out of his voice and expression was very creepy. “She had been captured by Kiri, and during... experiments, she ended up as the host for one of the tailed beasts. The three-tailed one, to be exact, to be let loose on Konoha at the earliest opportunity. She didn't want to destroy her own village, so she... Did what she did."

"...Shit," Naruto gasped after a while. "I mean, that's... I mean..." He looked around helplessly, but Sakura had to digest that information herself first. She wasn't given that much time to, as Naruto found his speech again pretty quickly. "So you were assigned a healer, an Uchiha and a jinchuuriki. _Who the hell did you piss off_?"

Sakura could have sworn she saw the mask crinkle the way it did when their sensei smiled, which just added to his creepy nonchalance about all these things.

"I've wondered that myself," he admitted, and she couldn't tell if he was joking or not, and also wasn't sure whether it mattered, all things considered. The silence between them lasted for a longer while now.

"And I guess you were also under orders not to tell us anything?" Naruto asked. "Like the pervert. And granny, somehow, though I don't quite get how anyone can give her orders, her being Hokage and all."

"Yes," Kakashi answered. "As with any further instructions regarding the Sharingan, nothing about my past was to be disclosed to you. Nothing about my team, nothing about my connection to your father."

"Are we gonna get killed for knowing this stuff now?" Naruto asked, sounding a little too excited about that prospect than Sakura would have liked. "I mean, are they gonna try to do that? Because I've always wanted to fight a proper ANBU."

"That depends," Kakashi now almost chuckled. "Does anyone else know that you know?"

The lightness of the tone almost made Sakura sick now. How could they just sit here and make jokes about this, when there was so much... When this was so utterly fucked up. And while orders sure explained a lot, they didn't absolve Kakashi from certain things at all in her eyes.

"So..." she started again, trying to keep her voice from shaking and showing her anger. “Were you also under orders to let us walk blindly into our doom?"

"Not quite," he answered, looking at her with suspicion. "More to keep you mediocre and from drawing attention to yourselves. More Sasuke and Naruto than you, admittedly. What are you trying to _really_ ask here?"

"Well, given what you said earlier, you must have been aware of certain... _Parallels_ ," she said, hands shaking with anger now. "Both regarding personalities and dynamics. So... What were you thinking teaching us the way you did? Or, more accurately, _not_ teaching us?"

Kakashi averted her gaze after these words, looking to the ground and almost seemed to feel guilty. For some reason, that just riled Sakura up more. Flippant she could deal with. Flippant meant that maybe he just hadn't cared enough or something. Guilty meant he had known exactly what he was (not) doing all along.

"Sakura-chan..." Naruto tried to intervene. "Is this about the whole kidnapping thing again? Because I thought about it and that could happen to anyone."

"Well, being trained in general self-defense tends to lower the odds," she snapped back. "Or at least in sensing someone sneaking up or _anything_. Teaching me anything at all would have improved the situation immensely. I mean, don't get me wrong, it was also my own damn fault that I was so horribly useless. But the thing is, wasting my academy years was one thing. The minute I got assigned on a team and we were sent out on missions, not trying to, I don't know, beat some discipline into me or _at least_ get me into one of the mediocre healing programs we had back then actively endangered _all of us_. More than once. And you _knew_ that," she spat at Kakashi. "You knew all along and _let it happen_."

"You're right," Kakashi admitted. "I have no excuse except the one you're all growing tired of hearing. I had orders. You were not part of them. I suspect they intended for you to either die along the way or be retired after the Chuunin exams."

"What do you mean, be retired?" Sakura asked. "That I'd be unable to continue working because of severe injury?"

"No, that the team would be disbanded due to the other two being promoted. That would leave you remaining as a Genin without a team and they'd have pushed you into the system subsequently," Kakashi explained. "It happens, especially in cases like yours where the only reason you got to graduate and move on to a proper team to begin with was the fact that you were the top-scoring girl in your class."

"I also scored higher than half of the boys who moved on to proper teams," Sakura pointed out in annoyance. "But thanks for reminding me that I'm here to fill a quota. Or be a calming agent. And on a good day, I might even get to maybe heal someone."

"Nobody really had you pegged for healing before you asked Tsunade to take you in," Kakashi disagreed. "And you never had the temper to be a calming agent, at all, as you are proving right now. That was part of the reason you were considered for research or teaching instead of healing."

"I do enjoy doing both of those things," Sakura admitted. "But somehow, tearing people apart and putting them back together is a lot more satisfying. Still, you can't tell me you didn't see that I'd be a decent healer after the chakra exercises."

"I did see that," Kakashi admitted. There was a crinkling under his mask again. "Maybe I wanted to avoid even more parallels. But as I said before, you and Rin never were alike besides being healers and your limited combat abilities after graduation. And you traded one for the other, so those two traits never even existed at the same time. And you truly need to work on your self-perception if you think of yourself as a _calming agent_ of all things. Though it should be said that de-escalation is a skill that should never be underestimated and you shouldn't feel degraded by the assumption that this might be something you're capable of. There are more ways to be useful than to punch things."

Sakura sighed and leaned back in her chair.

"I suppose," she relented. "But those don't keep you from being kidnapped and getting your teammates in lethal danger, do they?"

" _Letting_ yourself be kidnapped, especially as a young girl whose looks lead her to be constantly underestimated, can be strategically sound, though," Kakashi noted. "That's not what happened, but keep it in mind. Developing a team protocol for these situations might help, too, but that's another matter entirely."

They remained silent for a while after that. Sakura found it just a bit funny that none of them acknowledged the parallels relating to their interpersonal relationships anymore, but that would probably be unprofessional. And come to think of it, who here may or may not currently have feelings for whom hadn’t really mattered at all for a while now, had it?

"But you did receive the Mangekyou from killing her, didn't you?" Sasuke then asked, returning to the beginning of the conversation. “Despite the technicalities.”

"Yes," Kakashi answered. "My body isn't fit to use it much, though. As with most Sharingan abilities."

"But you didn't cast the Tsukiyomi on yourself," Sasuke continued.

"I doubt that would even be possible," Kakashi agreed. "And I also doubt this was a Tsukiyomi, as I said earlier. For one thing, it didn't cause me physical pain. It wasn't limited to 72 hours in my perception and to a few seconds in reality. And you broke out of it."

"To be fair, it looked like you were casting it on us," Sakura added. "We were sucked into it by looking into your eye, which didn't look like it usually does. And while we didn't exactly ask her about it, Karin wasn't alarmed by us staying away for long, so it stands to reason that only a few minutes did pass, even though what we witnessed took far longer than that."

"In any case, it couldn't have been your brother who cast it," Kakashi cut to Sasuke's actual point. "I wasn't chasing him down, he's not anywhere near the area even, and he does not know about these things. To be honest, I haven't seen who did it, and the person I was tracking shouldn't be able to do anything like that either. And there is no one else out there in possession of a Sharingan, so it can't have been a Tsukiyomi."

"It just looked and worked exactly like one," Sasuke snorted. "Sure. I don't know what my brother did to you, but to me, he did the exact same thing; replay memories over and over again."

"For 72 hours or infinity?" Kakashi asked skeptically. Sasuke didn't answer that. "My guess is a proficient user of genjutsu mimicked the Tsukiyomi to mess with us. Mostly me. You guys probably weren't expected on the scene."

"Whoever did this was long gone by the time we arrived," Sakura noted. "They could have taken you out if they wanted to, but they chose to run far, far away instead, so yes, that is our best guess for the moment."

"Well, he would have died eventually if we hadn't found him, right?" Naruto asked. "Looked close to death when we did, too. Uh, no offense."

"I've been worse," Kakashi assured them. They exchanged an uncomfortable glance at that.

"So what now?" Sasuke asked bluntly.

"Now you guys leave me alone, I need rest," Kakashi ordered them, his tone kinder than his words. "And then you follow the Hokage's orders. But first, I need you to do something for me."

 

* * *

 

 

"I told you he wouldn't want the flowers," Naruto pointed out somberly as Sakura laid them down. "But I guess this is a good use for them."

"Even if they are a little wilted," Sakura chuckled. "Well, I suppose it's the gesture that counts. Who of you wants to light the incense?" She held the package with the little sticks out at the boys. Sasuke took one, grabbed the tip and somehow managed to ignite it just with his fingers. Then he put it into the holder on the memorial stone and took a step back. Naruto started coughing.

"Your first time handling the stuff?" Sakura guessed. "You get used to it."

"What, you do this a lot?" Naruto managed to cough out. "I thought your dad was still alive, why would you light incense?"

"My mother does it anyways," Sakura sighed. "The smell reminds her of... Better days." She looked at Sasuke. "How come you handle this so well?"

"I work with fire," he answered flatly. "And this is not the first time I do this."

"Dumb question, I'm sorry," Sakura apologized immediately. They looked at the stone in silence for a while.

"This is weird," Naruto then declared. "I mean... We didn't even know them, and yet... I kinda do feel like mourning them."

"I think we should return here with Kakashi-sensei once he's capable again," Sakura said. "That would be... More proper. But he seemed so relieved someone could do this for him now. Even if it is a bit conspicuous for us to be here. But I supposed everyone has their losses, so it shouldn't be... That strange."

"Talking about it at length where people might here is not the best idea," Sasuke pointed out. "And I am still under supervision as far as I know."

"Not when you're with us," Sakura assured him. "Tsunade trusts us to keep you in line." She glanced at him uncomfortably for a second and then avoided his gaze again. Sasuke sighed.

"I did think about it," he then admitted. "Killing either of you, for the power boost. But I meant what I said, I won't. I don't need it. That's the path my brother chose for himself, and the one he chose for me. And I won't let him choose anything for me."

"Or you could have just said you're morally opposed to killing people you care about," Sakura sighed. "But I suppose this works as well."

"I thought that was implied," Naruto said, crouching down in front of the stone and going through the names engraved there. "You know, he kinda has to care about us for the thing to work, right? So there you go."

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"He makes that constipated face when you say that," Sakura chuckled. "So I vote we keep reminding him of it just to annoy him more. What are you even doing down there?"

"Got them!" Naruto announced instead of answering her question. "Here they are... Boy, a lot of people died between them, did you think that much time passed?"

"It was during a war, idiot," Sasuke snorted. "What did you expect?"

"Woah, guys..." Naruto then said, deflecting an answer yet again. "My... My parents are on this... Right after each other. That's... That's kinda cool."

"Shout it from the rooftops, why don't you," Sakura advised sarcastically. "By the way, remember to discreetly tell Hinata to keep quiet, alright?"

"Did so when I first told her," Naruto assured her. "Not that I'm saying it was Hinata-chan who I told, but whoever it was I also told her that this stuff is top secret and she should keep it to herself."

"Well then," Sakura snorted. "Let's hope whoever she is does so. And considering she isn't Hinata, she might just be a bit of a blabber-mouth and maybe talk regardless, so you should remind her..."

"I'm not telling," Naruto said stubbornly. "For her own sake now. It was... Ah.. Nothing... I mean..." He looked away from her. "None of your business, and all that. Let it go, people might hear."

"Alright," Sakura relented, then turned to Sasuke. "Are we going to bet on this? Because my money is _so_ on Hinata."

"No," Sasuke blew her off immediately and with a glare. She rolled her eyes.

"Alright, alright," she sighed. "Too bad I can't make bets with anyone else. Tenten would be all over this..."

They stood in an oddly comfortable silence after that, watching the incense burn down and each of them in their own thoughts. It was odd, Sakura supposed, how shared secrets and the deaths of two, or maybe four if you counted Naruto's parents as well, had somehow managed to get them to a level of understanding and cooperation as a team that she would never have thought possible. That it had taken these rather extreme situations to achieve that was probably several shades of fucked up, but hey. She'd take what she could get.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm kind of sad that I got to write the chapters as early as I did in a way. Just imagine all the jokes about how maternity can easily be proved I could have had Sakura make everywhere. Or about DNA tests back when we talked about blood types. Speaking of which, do we have one for Sarada? The wiki says no, but the wiki also seems to have bought 100 % matches of shoddy DNA samples from the same chapter in which it was explained that no, the DNA between parents and child do not match 100 %. Unless the thesis is now that Karin spawned her via mitosis. In any case, people are being stupid. We will have none of that stupidity here. But we will have Karin back in the next chapter! Maybe I can throw some shade at people failing biology 101 there. Go google gel electrophoresis or something, that's used for paternity tests. 
> 
> Where was I going with this? I dunno. A child by Sasuke and Sakura can only have blood type A or B, with equal probability. A child by Sasuke and Karin (insert laughing track here) can have blood types A (25 %), B (25 %) or AB (50%). So there's... one blood type Sarada could have to clear this up some more. And now I have spent too much time on this already, but I'm sorry, the wiki had Karin listed as Sarada's mother and I'm pissed. 
> 
> So let's talk about something else! Like... Uh. Chuunin exams! Aren't you excited? I know I am. It was probably my favorite part of the series and I enjoyed it so much I used it in the original version of this twice. The exact same exams. For reasons! But I digress. That may or may not happen here. 
> 
> Oh, uh, follow me on tumblr! At http://vohalika.tumblr.com/ , where I am salty about Game of Thrones, Naruto Gaiden, the general state of society and also fangirl a lot about numerous things. I also post the chapters there, but the formatting has recently started sucking. 
> 
> See you... Soon. Ish. I hope.


	20. Morse Code For Suckers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After a few more or less fruitful study sessions, the Chuunin exams begin. Well, the theoretical part anyway.

**20\. Morse Code For Suckers**

"You gotta be shitting me," Karin said bluntly, looking at the sheet of paper in front of her in disgust.

"I'm sorry, we got the orders to prepare you for the theoretical part of the exam, and that used to be part of it last time," Sakura said, forcing herself to be calm. "I understand that you haven't really been able to receive the, ah, traditional kind of education, so I'd be happy to explain to you any material you struggle with."

"Okay, shut the fuck up right there," Karin demanded. "First of all, I took this exam before, remember? I said so during that talk with the Hokage person, and Sasuke-kun can back me up there. Second of all, I used to be a researcher for Orochimaru, specialized on cellular biology; do you really think I don't know how to calculate how to throw a kunai?"

"Fair enough," Sakura admitted. "Then filling out that sheet and proving that shouldn't take much longer than a few minutes and we can move on."

"I don't have to prove anything to you," Karin snorted. "Leave me alone with this shit, I have better things to do with my time."

"As do we all," Sakura said, forcing herself not to growl. "Yet we have orders from Tsunade to study for this exam with you, and that's what we're going to do." She pulled out another sheet of paper and placed it in front of her. "If mathematical equations are insulting your intelligence, however, feel free to start with this."

Karin scanned the paper for a few seconds.

"This is bullshit," she then declared. "Cardinal rules of being a ninja? All of that is bullshit propaganda meant to turn you all into obedient little working bees. Or killing bees, whatever. There's no way I'm going to invest any brain cells into this crap."

"Yes, I'm sure the work ethic in Oto was based on much more liberal principles and less indoctrination," Sakura couldn't help but commenting. "Do you want to try yourself at deciphering codes instead?"

"If I do that, will you leave me alone?" Karin asked, rolled her eyes and pulled the paper over to her. "Besides, that guy who I'm replacing on the team is in charge of organizing the theoretical part, so if anyone in this room is not going to fail, it'd be me." She paused, then turned on the saccharine. "And Sasuke-kun, of course, you're so smart."

The only reaction she got for that was Sakura rolling her eyes; Sasuke didn't even look up from where he was actually quite obediently solving equations. Naruto was busy reading the academy textbook and trying to remember the formulas he should have memorized at the age of five. When he wasn't busy staring at Karin with as much subtlety as a wrecking ball. He had so far kept to not informing Karin of their distant relation, as was better for all parties involved, but if he could keep it up the way he was staring at her was anyone's guess.

"Wait, did you say Shikamaru was in charge of setting up the theoretical exam?" Sakura then noted. Karin made an affirmative noise while working on decoding a second ninja war era code from Suna. "Shit!" Sakura cursed.

"Language, my dear," her mother chided, having just passed the living room for what felt like the hundredth time since they had started this. "Do behave in front of your guests."

"Yes, mom," Sakura mumbled.

"What's so bad about that?" Naruto asked. "Won't that just make it easier for us, since he's our friend?"

"No, that means instead of merely reproducing facts at a level beyond the usual academy requirements, whatever he's going to come up with will actually require us to _think_ ," Sakura sighed. "Like... Solving a riddle or playing chess against each other or something. That might be a problem."

"So studying will be worthless either way," Sasuke pointed out.

"Not necessarily," Sakura considered. "First, we got the order for this from Tsunade. Whatever exam Shikamaru has in store for us must have gone past her. Second, it is still a _written_ exam, so some kind of knowledge will be required that all participants are equally likely to have." She gestured at the materials. "And that's all from the academy curriculum. Last time's questions were, too, you just had to apply things you learned in the academy to more complex problems."

"And that didn't matter at all," Karin reminded her. "Last time was bullshit. Not only did they aim for silly mind games with that tenth question, but it was too transparent, too. I mean, what, only disqualifying us for being caught cheating five times?"

"Yes, one time would have been enough, and we were supposed to cheat to begin with," Sakura cut her off and rolled her eyes. "But if you haven't noticed, except for Sasuke, we don't exactly have the ability to cheat subtly, so getting by without cheating at all would be ideal."

"Who says you had to cheat subtly?" Karin snorted. "Really, get up, go over to someone who knows what he's doing and copy all his answers. That's one cheating attempt. You could even go to at least three more people to compare. It's not against the rules so they can't disqualify you for it."

"They still might for sheer stupidity," Sakura muttered, not wanting to admit that she had fallen for that first exam in more than one way. "In any case, we can't rely on assuming it will all be the same, and we can't rely on assuming no theoretical knowledge will be required. So get down to that again, and I'll figure something out for logical thinking. Maybe get a riddle book or something... Or we can all play chess..."

"You really think you can teach _all_ of us the rules and get us up to playing within less than two weeks?" Sasuke asked, glancing at Naruto, who stuck his tongue out at him when he noticed.

"It's always nice to see you guys trust my abilities so much," Naruto said sarcastically.

"You give us every reason to," Sasuke replied flatly and they glared at each other.

Sakura sighed deeply. Of course she trusted her teammates with her life, anytime really. However she felt it safer to omit that they both had a bit of a track record for reckless and thoughtless behavior, though Sasuke usually did okay if he wasn't provoked... And Shikamaru was a master at being absolutely infuriating, as she knew from spending way too many hours listening to Ino vent about him.

Wait a minute...

 

* * *

 

It was only with the deepest regret and sense of foreboding that on that particular evening, she found herself in front of the Yamanaka flower shop, glancing inside to check whether Ino was actually working. She was. Sakura couldn't decide if that made it better or worse.

Still, it was the most practical solution. The only way to play it safe. And her inner worrier demanded that she at least try - the worst Ino could do was say no, and that would leave them off no worse than they were now. The only thing that suffered here was her pride. And really, she didn't intend to ask this for her, just for her teammates. If anything, her involvement would be profitable to Ino too, and...

Well, going over her line of argument for the umpteenth time wouldn't really help her now, would it?

Sakura took a steeling breath and entered the store.

"Oh hey," Ino greeted her. "Need another bouquet for Kakashi, or are you here to get something for your mother?"

"No, actually, I'm here to talk to you," Sakura answered her, slightly surprised at Ino being immediately helpful. Well, now the other girl crossed her arms in front of her and looked at Sakura suspiciously, so much for that.

"Do tell," Ino said in a careful voice. "I'm all ears and the shift is really slow anyways."

"Well, I'm sure you're aware that there's going to be a written exam at the upcoming chuunin exams..." Sakura cut straight to the chase.

"Yes, in fact, we got an entirely new team member that had to spend an unreasonable amount of time with you just for that purpose," Ino reminded her sharply, sounding mildly insulted. "Not to mention that my other teammate has a hand in developing them and hasn't spoken about anything else for a while. But do kindly lecture me on the subject; I'm sure you're much better informed than I am."

"That's not what I meant or how I meant it," Sakura groaned. "Okay, I want to offer you a deal."

"You want to switch teams?" Ino asked, not quite serious. "I'm in. I'll even brace Naruto. Where do I need to sign?"

"If you ever find a contract that gets both you and me out of the teams we're in, it'll probably be the kind you have to sign in blood and sacrifice your firstborn for," Sakura muttered darkly. "And probably every following child, too. They might actually make you have thirteen children just so you can sacrifice them in order to invoke that contract, because there is no way in hell this is happening."

"No need to get all gloomy," Ino snorted. "Wasn't really serious anyways. Okay, what kind of deal do you have in mind?"

"Well, about those written exams," Sakura repeated herself. "I remember how last time, you used your mind and body switch technique on me to get all the right answers."

"I did," Ino said defensively. "What of it? That was the point of the exam, wasn't it? Using techniques to cheat?"

"Yes, yes, of course," Sakura said and waved off her concerns. "I'm not bitter about that or anything. No, I just wanted to remind you that I can resist that technique now."

"Trust me, that's not something I'm likely to forget, ever," Ino mumbled. "Do you know how rare that is? And creepy? And how it hurts every time you shove me out of your subconscious?"

"Well, that's because you usually don't have any business being in there," Sakura said amused. "But that's just what this deal is about. I want to offer you full use of my subconscious for the upcoming exam."

"Under the condition I give any and all answers I get from you to your teammates," Ino concluded. "Hm. Not a bad plan. I like how it leaves you with no way to check whether I actually do that."

"Well, I'm going to see whether Naruto writes anything down or not," Sakura pointed out. "But yes, most of this is based on trust. And I also don't think you'd let Sasuke-kun down, would you?"

"Hmmm, good point," Ino admitted. "And you think this is enough to make me hold up my end of the bargain? I could just possess anyone else for the answers, you know?"

"Yes, but didn't say once that possessing people you've been inside of before is a lot easier?" Sakura asked. "And also, wouldn't that also require you to subtly figure out who else might have the answers?"

"More good points," Ino said, looking not too pleased with that. "Guess that's the reason I'd pick your brain to get me out of a written test. Alright, I'll do it, for Sasuke-kun and all that, but I can make no promises on whether it'll work."

"You've been able to contact me while I was several feet underground and you had absolutely no idea of knowing where I was," Sakura reminded her bluntly. "Pretty sure you'll be able to mentally talk to both me and four other people in the general vicinity."

"Under normal circumstances, sure," Ino said. "I'd probably even be able to contact you all at the same time. But the thing is, remember how Shikamaru is the one in charge of the exam?"

"And he knows what you can do," Sakura remembered. "Dammit. So you think he knows a way to block your abilities?"

"I wouldn't put it past him," Ino said darkly. "Or he'll come up with an exam that makes my abilities useless. It's not like him to do something that favors his own team."

"Well, thanks for agreeing to help us if possible anyways," Sakura sighed. "I appreciate it. I'll tell the boys to let you in, though I doubt they'll put up much resistance."

"I don't know, didn't you and Sasuke-kun got genjutsu practice together?" Ino asked. "That usually is a good way to train resistance... And hey, don't get all emotional on me, I'm not doing this for you."

"Of course," Sakura said but couldn't help smiling a bit. "Also, I would like to purchase a few gerania for my mom, actually."

 

* * *

 

 

"I hear our teams are cooperating," Karin actually attempted to make small talk on their shared way to the building where the first part of the exam would take place.

"I see you both eavesdropped and took advantage of our shared living quarters," Sakura countered and nodded at the backpack Karin was carrying. "And that deal only lasts for the first part, as thanks that I schooled you on propaganda that might be asked of you. And because of Sasuke, obviously." Not that much schooling had happened, anyways. Mostly just a lot of shouting.

"You forget, again, that I also took part in the same exams you did," Karin snorted. "Only a total idiot would attempt to survive that forest again without at least basic provisions. Actually, only an idiot would attempt to take an exam _at all_ without provisions and equipment, come to think of it."

That assessment definitely proved that Karin had been eavesdropping on team 7 only sessions, as Sakura had indeed needed to argue this point with Naruto for a bit. Also, the fact that they were talking at all proved that Karin by now liked her more than she did Naruto - which Sakura would have considered to be no small feat under normal conditions. Unfortunately, Karin's newly found animosity towards Naruto was mostly based on his attempts to be nice to her, which were most definitely rooted in the fact that they were somewhat super distantly related, probably. Which Karin still wasn't allowed to know about and now probably thought Naruto was into her or something. Because they needed more of that sort of complications in their rough group of peers. Sakura had even tried to tease him about Hinata from time to time, but as it turned out Naruto was actually good at avoiding a topic if he really put his mind to it. Which in this case was really not helping, unfortunately.

They reached the building where the exams were supposed to be held in and were among the first there. A few teams from different villages were already there; they walked past a colorful contingent from Kiri, before Karin dragged Sakura along by the elbow to very definitively avoid a larger group of ninjas from both Kusa and Taki, the latter of which engaged in a glaring contest with the smaller party from Kiri. A plain looking girl from Suna waved at Sakura, in a manner more friendly than the behavior of all other factions they'd seen so far combined, and Sakura waved back, even though she wasn't quite clear on how the girl knew her. But then again, she had been involved tangentially in a few missions that were done to enhance the Konoha-Suna partnership before she seriously committed to her training. Once they were past that, Karin released her hold on Sakura and shoved her in the general direction of Naruto, who of course was standing at the exact opposite point of where they had agreed to meet and was already waving and smiling at them and looking awkward doing it.

"You got everything?" Sakura asked instead of a greeting. Karin meanwhile had vanished somewhere in the crowd, no small feat with hair as noticeable as hers. Sakura knew that from experience.

"Food, tools, and stuff, yeah," Naruto answered. "Is it just me or did Karin look scared of those Kusa people?"

"We all should be, actually," Sakura said in a whisper. "I mean, what are they even doing there, weren't we just sort of at war with them after the attack on Oto?"

"Dunno, I was underground and unconscious for that part," Naruto reminded her. "But, uh, I guess?"

"Well, and before that, they were pretty close with Oto, weren't they?" Sakura speculated further. "And how high are the chances Karin would be seen as a traitor by them for joining the village?"

"...Pretty high?" Naruto said and paled at that realization. "Uh, are you sure we're going to do the whole forest of death thing again?"

"Pretty sure," Sakura answered carefully. "Or something like it, but it was booked for the next five days when I checked it out at the administration office, so... What's your point?"

"Karin can't fight, right?" Naruto reminded her. "And, uh, Ino and Chouji aren't bad, but... What if they get ambushed and are totally outnumbered? There's a _lot_ of these guys around..."

"Karin is a sensor," Sakura pointed out, trying to sound kind when in truth she was getting a bit annoyed. "I highly doubt anyone will be able to ambush her."

"Hasn't kept her from being captured a lot, has it?" Naruto muttered. "But she didn't have a team with her then and... Hm."

"Also, Ino and Chouji did fine in the forest the last time around, remember?" Sakura continued. " _We_ were the ones who needed rescuing, and that was with Orochimaru in the mix. There's no need for you to worry about them, okay? Now let's go and find Sasuke."

"Wait, what?" Naruto asked, confused. "But we're meeting here, aren't we?"

"No, we're not," Sakura sighed and pointed at the tree they were standing under. "That's an oak. We're supposed to meet under the beech tree right over there. You can glare at Kusa ninjas on our way past if you think it'll help Karin and her team."

 

They found Sasuke under the correct tree, of course, but also eyeing the group of Kusa, Taki and now even Ame ninjas suspiciously as it was growing larger .

"I don't like this," he greeted them with a glare.

"It's good to see you, too," Sakura snorted. "Also, if you're _trying_ to jinx this, you just said the second best thing to do so. Here, I'll one-up you: _What could possibly go wrong_?"

"Absolutely nothing," Naruto declared, sounding too somber for even faking enthusiasm. "Which is why we should totally split up at the first opportunity we get."

That uncharacteristically sarcastic remark got him looks that were very close to offended from both Sakura and Sasuke, before Sasuke just rolled his eyes and Sakura sighed.

"Okay, let's try something else to get you two out of whatever this sudden gloominess is," Sakura said. "Not with all the Kusa ninjas in the world can this exam possibly go worse than the last one, which included, but was not limited to, getting attacked by Orochimaru, eaten by snakes, spending several day unconscious, almost dying if not for the help of just about everyone we know, and oh, yes, a war. Tell me one way in which this could get any worse."

"Well, if you put it like that..." Naruto muttered, but Sasuke just snorted.

"The minor villages are pissed with Konoha for wiping out Oto," he reminded them. "You think they're here for an exam that most villages don't even care about? The attack from Oto and Suna last time was overt, straight and obvious warfare. The minor villages know they're outclassed, which is why whatever they are planning is sneaky and requires sneaking in all of these people at once."

"Which isn't very sneaky at all," Sakura argued. "Sneaky would be smuggling them in and having them pose as ninjas from other villages, gaining our trust and then staging a coup. This is nothing but an exam."

"And exam that gets them right into this village and that nobody can be refused to take part in," Sasuke pointed out. "See how Suna did it last time. And they only had one team; just imagine what all of these people can do."

"Not move around stealthily considering how many there are," Sakura snorted. "Ugh, how about we stop getting worried and go enter the exam?"

 

***

 

"This is not a genjutsu again," Sakura determined, only slightly freaked out while looking around. "Or at least not one I can detect. Sasuke, can you see anything?"

"No," Sasuke answered, his Sharingan activated and glaring at the poor sobs who had just made them draw lots for some nefarious purpose and then seriously demanded that they _split up_.

"So you are serious in separating the teams?" Sakura asked these people, not for the first time.

"Yes, yes we are," one of the two guys said, growing visibly annoyed. "It's why you register here, and draw lots, and why every single other person coming by before you did just that."

"You'll work as a team again in the second round," his colleague chimed in. "Now, if you don't mind, room one is on this floor, two and three are just up the stairs..."

"What the hell..." Sakura muttered, mind rattling on about what Shikamaru could hope to accomplish with this. If this was a precaution against Ino's telepathy jutsu, it was a rather bad one. If several feet of more or less solid rock and earth hadn't kept her from reaching Sakura, being one story below or next door wouldn't, either. Unless there were ways to seal the rooms against that kind of jutsu, like the Hyuugas had a way to make certain rooms impervious against the Byakugan... The entire family living together in one giant estate would have just become awkward otherwise, Sakura assumed. She could very much understand that some people didn't like to be watched in the privacy of their rooms, which, not for the first time, led her to wonder whether the village had a Hyuuga stationed somewhere who did indeed look into every bedroom in the entire village... And that was just creepy.

"Hey, our tactic will still work, won't it?" Naruto asked as she was lost in thought. Sakura looked back to make sure they were out of earshot of the two guys at the register now, but they were now preoccupied with registering the group from Kiri.

"If Ino plays along, yes," she muttered under her breath. "But there's no guarantee she will, so... Let's just hope for the best."

"I could just use clones and henge myself into you guys," Naruto suggested. "And then you hide somewhere and one of my clones stays with you and you tell me all the answers. I can do stuff like that."

Sakura considered that for a moment.

"Too risky," she then declared. "It might get us disqualified before we even get started, and doing it after the fact will be difficult since it would involve getting all of us out of the room at roughly the same time to exchange, and that's not going to happen." She bit her lip. "Our best bet is to just trust Ino or hope that this exam won't actually require us to communicate."

They reached the door to examination room one. Naruto grinned at them.

"You know what?" He said cheerfully. "I'm feeling kinda lucky today. This will all work out, you'll see." He then waved at them and entered the room. Sakura shot a skeptical glance at Sasuke, who just rolled his eyes and went on to the staircase that would lead them up to their own examination rooms.

"Has purposefully invoking his luck ever actually led to the desired result?" Sakura mused while they moved up together.

"Tsunade wants us to get past this," Sasuke reminded her monotonously. "She wouldn't give the okay to an exam we can't pass from the start."

"Good point," she sighed. "We probably all need to stop being paranoid already. Or have you spotted anything possibly linking this to your brother yet?" She kind of meant that as a serious question; last time, his instincts had been right, after all, even though she'd tried to dismiss him. Yet Sasuke briefly snorted in amusement.

"Not here," he then answered. "Too public."

"Well, then that's at least one thing we won't have to watch out for," Sakura chuckled as they reached the second examination room. "Do let Ino inside your mind if she tries, okay?"

"As if I would need her," Sasuke said, sounding mildly offended before nodding at her and entering the room that had been assigned to him. The door was only halfway closed when Sakura already heard the excited shriek of the girl they'd just been discussing welcoming him to the room. Well then.

Sakura went on to her own exam room. A few other participants were already there, among them Tenten who she sat down next to.

"Ah, good," Tenten remarked instead of a greeting. "So if things get hairy, I can always cheat off your paper."

"Not if things get Shikamaru’s kind of hairy," Sakura mumbled. "I suck at riddles. And chess, too."

"And yet, we were forced to endure your tutelage on these things," Karin remarked from in front of her. "Are you sure your great master isn't actively trying to sabotage you? And me, too. For whatever reason."

"Oh, yeah, she's here, too," Tenten said and nodded at Karin. "Fun times."

"I don't trust this set-up," Sakura continued. "I mean, everything else about this exam is supposed to be about teams and leadership, right? But how can we work as a team from different rooms without knowing specific jutsus to do so?"

"Maybe it's about showing our self-sufficiency outside of our usual teams," Tenten mused. "You know. Everyone can pass an exam if their friends help them enough."

"Well, but if those friends can help you subtly within a strongly supervised room, chances are they can also do it from another room altogether," Sakura argued. "Speaking of which - where _are_ the supervisors?"

The only people in the room so far were the other participants who settled down behind their desks. None of the boisterous behavior from last year was happening, either; apparently, most people only felt boisterous in a group of three. The room faced a courtyard with a small, sand-covered training area. Chances were this was an off-branch of the academy used for some sort of specialized training. The only thing not matching that conclusion was the screen above the blackboard at the end of the room opposite to the door. Hm. Odd. Yet there was also a front desk with sheets of paper on top of it, which were probably their tests... Which no one had touched yet. Then again, they were probably being supervised one way or the other, and prematurely looking at the questions was grounds for expulsion in most academical situations. So for now all there was to it was to wait for further instructions, really.

"Yo!" Kiba suddenly greeted them and sat down on Sakura's other side. "What's with this splitting up bullshit? Does that make any sense to you guys?"

"It does to Shikamaru, apparently," Tenten answered. "And if that doesn't scare you, I don't know what should."

"You mean besides all these minor village people who should hate our guts showing up here today," Kiba snorted. "Then again, yeah, Shikamaru is probably more terrifying."

"There's another thing that doesn't make much sense," it suddenly occurred to Sakura. "I mean, we're separated from our teams, sure. But if the point was to stop everyone from getting help... I don't know, but I'd help you guys. And this whole exam is as much a pissing contest between villages as it is a proper examination, so it stands to reason that with multiple teams from every village, they'd most likely assist each other as well. So that can't be it, can it?"

"I don't know, just because we get along, doesn't mean everyone does," Kiba pointed out. "I mean, the way these people stare at each other I can't tell whether they hate us or each other more or if they're just naturally very grumpy people."

"Also, I don't think they preach solidarity and all that as much elsewhere as they do here," Tenten added. "You have read about what kids have to do in Kiri to graduate, right?"

"What, kill everyone else in their graduating class and the last one standing makes it?" Sakura recalled. "Read it, heard it from someone who's been there, and concluded that can only have applied to a certain group of students, since only having one new shinobi every year, in addition to usual casualty rates, is highly unsustainable, and yet Kiri doesn't seem to have died out back when that was a thing." She snorted. "Also, our school books were written by people with an agenda. Take everything they say about other villages with a grain of salt, a lot of it is probably dramatized if not outright fabrication."

"Do you think talking like a school book will help you with your test?" Kiba asked and looked at her funny.

"It helps me get in the mood, sorry," Sakura sighed. "Also, this is taking too long, shouldn't everyone be inside now? Or are they expecting people to take an exam while sitting on the floor or the window sills?"

Tenten craned her neck and looked around.

"Yup, every seat's been taken," she confirmed. "Well, you can sit on my lap, if it comes to that. And maybe take my test for me while you're at it. I mean, you said you'd help us, so feel free to deliver on that any time."

"Same," Kiba said with a smirk. "My lap's always available for either of you if you are in need."

"Do you always get weirdly inappropriately flirty when you're getting impatient, or are we just special that way?" Sakura asked suspiciously.

"Are you talking to him or me?" Tenten asked.

"Him," Sakura clarified. "I know you get inappropriate all the time."

"Tenten started it," Kiba defended himself. "I just picked up the ball."

Sakura suppressed a groan, yet Tenten again rose to the occasion.

"Good boy!" She cooed. "Want your belly rubbed now? And where is your dog anyway?"

"He doesn't do too well in stuffy classrooms," Kiba answered the question first. "And since I can't carry him on my head anymore, using him to cheat is kind of more trouble than its worth. Also, was that an offer I can take you up on later? It's a bit crowded here."

"You know, taking the exam on the window sill, _far away from you_ , is starting to sound pretty nice actually," Sakura groaned. "No, really, I'll absolutely leave this seat and give the two of you some space, just say the word."

"I think we're making her uncomfortable," Kiba observed.

"Cute," Tenten said.

"Can you keep it down?" Karin hissed at them, turning around and glaring at Kiba in particular.

"Woah, sunshine, calm down," Kiba said, waving his hands reassuringly. "Who are you, anyway? You have that Konoha forehead protector, but I've never seen you around." That just made Karin glare and him more and fiddle with the forehead protector she had tied around her arm after Tsunade ordered her to wear it at least for the exam.

"She's Shikamaru's replacement," Sakura explained. "Her name is Karin."

"Sakura and her team picked her up on the road," Tenten added unhelpfully. "She used to hang with Oro - "

"Please stop talking," Sakura hissed at her before Tenten could finish that sentence. Karin had just rolled her eyes and turned back around, but the way she uncomfortably glanced at the Kusa shinobi in the room did not escape Sakura's notice. "This is neither the time nor the place for that."

"Woah," Kiba said and whistled through his teeth. "Okay. Not pissing her off then, got it."

Before Sakura could point out that not pissing anyone off was a generally a good rule to live by unless the circumstances specifically called for you to do otherwise, the screen above the blackboard came alive and they were greeted with a giant version of Shikamaru's face, looking down on all of them like they were a mildly entertaining chess game of his, played against an academy student.

"Good morning and welcome to Konoha," he said in his usual enthusiastic way. "My name is Nara Shikamaru and I'm your instructor for this test."

"Someone's suffering from acute lack of job satisfaction," Kiba pointed out.

"He's just about to pass out from overexcitement, I tell you," Tenten added.

"On the front desk, you see a stack of paper sheets. These are your exams. Everyone please take one sheet now," Shikamaru on the screen droned on. There was a pause while everyone got up to get their exam, grab extra papers for their compatriots, or was a little more organized and just divided the stack evenly and passed it around for everyone. Sakura luckily said in one of the blocks where someone was smart enough to take a small portion of the papers and pass them along, so she didn't even had to get up and thus had time to watch the other contestants. It seemed their earlier musing held some truth; not all participants from the same village were on good terms with each other at all. Some even actively tried to sabotage their countrymen by not giving them a sheet on purpose. It took a little while for it all to be sorted out, all under the judging and bored eyes of Shikamaru. And even when everyone in Sakura's exam room had settled down, it took a few more moments for Shikamaru to continue.

"If you now look at the exam," he then continued. "You will see three questions, and the amount of points they're worth. It's thirty, forty and fifty pointss respectively. Every one of you will only answer one. Then the scores of your team will be added to each other. Each team that scores above 100 points will be eliminated. After that is done, we will calculate the average score out of all teams still in the running, and every team under that average score will be eliminated. You have thirty minutes to answer a question. No fighting is allowed at this point of the exam. That will be all." The transmission died. It was met with a shocked silence.

Sakura bit her lips. The questions on the test were easy. Too easy. Even the one worth fifty pointss. So this wasn't about knowledge at all...

"So..." Kiba started. "Everyone just does the 30 point question to be safe?"

"Are we allowed to talk?" Tenten asked before Sakura could answer.

"No rule against it," Sakura pointed out. "And everyone doing the 30 point question will result in your team scoring 90 points in total, which puts them at a disadvantage compared to those who actually manage to score 100 because of the average rule." She grinned and rubbed her hands together. "Oh, this is going to be fun."

 

***

 

"Okay, Hinata-chan, explain that again," Naruto asked, looking at the questions. There had to be a trick to them. Had to be. No way around it. These questions were way too easy, he could tell. Because he was sure he could actually answer all of them, sort of. Maybe not completely, but partially.

"You have to score exactly 100 points with your team," Neji answered instead, way less nicely than Hinata-chan would have. "Anything over that disqualifies you. Anything under that does, too."

"Yeah, I got that part," Naruto answered. "I'm more confused about what question I'm supposed to be answering, or how I'm supposed to know what Teme and Sakura-chan are doing."

"Well, there are two possible winning combinations," Hinata-chan now took over. "One team member answers the forty pointss question, the other two answer the thirty points ones. Or two team members answer the fifty points question and one answers no question at all."

"So there's a way to win this without me doing anything?" Naruto asked for clarification.

"I... Suppose," Hinata-chan answered. "But it's... Not very nice to your teammates, and we still have no way to communicate..."

"Nah, that's fine," he declared, as people all around him suddenly started yelling for their teammates and leaned back. "Sakura-chan and Teme don't expect anything from me, anyway."

 

***

 

"This is blatant favoritism," Kiba declared over the general and pointless yelling, staring at the board where Sakura had written down all possible combinations so everyone would stop fussing so much about it. "I mean, seriously. Ino's team has this one in the bag; can't she do this creepy telepathic long-distance conversation thing?"

"It's not that creepy," Sakura said evasively. "Her voice just suddenly talks to you inside your head. And it's easier to shake off than that body takeover thing she does."

"Still," Kiba continued, his arms crossed in front of him. "If anyone knows about that, it's Shikamaru, so how did they let him get away with being this biased? Ugh. What is this, nepotism?"

"I don't think they're related, so no," Tenten mused, chewing on her pencil. "Blatant favoritism fits the bill though."

"Well, Ino would always be at an advantage, no matter the kind of written exam," Sakura muttered.

"Yeah, but last time everyone had a chance to cheat," Kiba pointed out. "This time, it's just about finding a way to tell your teammates what to do without leaving the room. So how's that supposed to work for anyone without telepathic powers?"

"Being able to predict what your teammates are going to do," Sakura explained. "In my team, that's really obvious, actually. Naruto won't do anything, either because he actually can't, but I'm pretty sure even he could solve at least the thirty points question, so Sasuke and I will do the fifty pointss."

"Well, and I know that Lee will try to do the most for the team and do the fifty pointss without even thinking about what Neji or I are going to do," Tenten added. "That just leaves me with the option to do nothing and trust that Neji will pick up the slack, or to do the work myself and trust Neji not to do a thing. Fun."

By now, the other participants seemed to have realized that this particular exam could not be solved by shouting really loud and settled down again.

"So if you're so sure what you'll have to do, why aren't you writing?" Kiba asked Sakura directly. She shrugged her shoulders.

"I'm in no hurry to finish," she claimed, evasively, again. She didn't feel too good keeping her deal with Ino a secret, but if she told the others about it, they might want to try and make her make Ino do the same for them, and uugh. This just wasn't the kind of headache she wanted to deal with right now, but she couldn't just go by her gut and write without confirmation... Ugh.

 

***

 

"So..." Ino whispered, getting just a little too close to him than was necessary. Sasuke ground his teeth and ignored it. "You still need my help, right?"

"Yes," he said flatly. Technically, the set-up should have been obvious. Sakura and he would do the fifty-point questions, Naruto would do nothing. Unless he felt like doing something heroic and try to win some points himself. And Sakura would be worrying her head off about whether everyone else was smart enough to figure this out without her help, put off answering her question until the last few minutes and be too upset for the rest of the exam. Probably.

"What do you want me to tell them, then?" Ino asked, again keeping her voice down, and only sounding a little bit sultry. Ugh.

"Tell Naruto to do nothing," Sasuke instructed her and tried to very subtly move away from her as she concentrated for a bit.

"He says he could absolutely answer the questions, but already knew you wouldn't expect anything of him," the girl then informed him. Sasuke snorted.

"Sure," he commented. "And now tell Sakura to stop worrying and answer her question. The fifty pointss, if she's confused."

"Mmmhm," Ino may or may not have said, he wasn't quite sure. Her voice got drowned out by a triumphant cry further down the room.

"YES!" Rock Lee declared. "YES, I DID IT! I ANSWERED THE FIFTY POINTSS QUESTION! MY TEAM CAN ALWAYS COUNT ON ME!"

And then there were odd vibrations shaking the room. Four in rapid succession, and then another one, with a little pause before it.

 

***

 

"You were only supposed to do that four times!" Naruto yelled indignantly at the mean Suna guy who had started punching the walls after Neji had revealed some kind of master plan for them all to pass that depended on signaling to the others that their room would answer the forty points question, and everyone else should take the thirty points question. But apparently, that wasn't good enough for some people.

"Yeah, sorry, I'm not here for your wussy everyone gets to pass shit," the Suna guy informed him. "I got my own ways, and the more of you don't make it now, the better." He then smirked at Neji like he'd just done something really awesome. "Have fun on your way home. At least it's a short one."

Hinata-chan next to him sighed, but she didn't seem too concerned. Neither did Neji whose plans just had been thwarted, for that matter. He just rolled his eyes.

"The plan still works," Neji then informed the Suna asshole. "Only that now, everyone else will think they're supposed to answer the fifty points question, as the only way to make a definitive statement with five punches is to announce that one will not answer any question at all." Then his mouth twitched a bit, as if he was in danger of also smiling. Luckily he didn't, or his face might have burst in half or something. "Incidentally, the same would have worked with three punches. That would have signified to the others that we were going to answer the forty pointss question and they were supposed to answer the thirty points ones." He paused, and now actually something like a smirk appeared on his face. "Of course, only to those smart enough to figure out the meaning."

That seemed to knock the Suna asshole off his stride, while Naruto laughed loudly. And even louder, when the pathetic Suna guy then started beating the walls in anger over and over again, as if that would change anything at that point. Even he could see it wouldn't!

 

***

 

"What just happened?" Tenten asked, looking disturbed. "Was that a sign? From whom?"

"They could just be fighting," Kiba pointed out. "Also, what is this supposed to tell us, whoever sent the signal will do the fifty points question?"

Sakura was about to answer that when another presence entered her consciousness. It still felt like some kind of invasion, all things considered, but she'd never been so relieved about having her mind toyed with before.

_Hey, forehead girl, what was that?_ Ino asked, instead of just getting to the point. _Did that come from your room?_

_No_ , Sakura answered. _So, here's the plan..._

_I'm gonna stop you right there_ , Ino didn't even let her finish. _Already took care of it. Naruto says he could totally answer the questions, but will gladly refrain from doing so so you can feel smart._

_I'm pretty sure he did not say it like that,_ Sakura scoffed mentally. _And that wasn't my plan of action just so I can feel smart, it's just..._

_Yeah, no, cut it out,_ Ino interrupted her again. _Sasuke-kun also says you should calm the fuck down and get to work instead of panicking. He seemed very annoyed._

_That's his general state of being,_ Sakura commented, trying very hard not to visibly snort.

_He also cared more about getting the message to Naruto than to you,_ Ino added, in a saccharine tone that was right up there with Karin's preferred way of speaking to authority in trying to piss her off. Now Sakura really had to forcer herself not to roll her eyes. Luckily no one was paying attention to her inner struggle as several more vibrations shook the building.

_That's because he knows I could have figured this out on my own, whereas Naruto is a bit of a wild card,_ she kindly informed Ino. _Will that be all, or do I need to tell Karin what she's supposed to do?_

_Nah, I took care of that myself,_ Ino answered. _I don't think it'd be too good for anyone involved if you start talking about a telepathy jutsu in a room full of desperate people trying to get in touch with their teammates. Have fun._

And with that, her mind was her own again. And the screen came back to life, with a very, very disgruntled looking Shikamaru glaring at them.

"I would like to remind all participants that fighting each other at this stage of the exam would lead to immediate expulsion," he announced, and turned off again just like that.

"Does that mean people are actually fighting?" Tenten asked, confused.

"No, then they'd be expelled," Sakura explained. "And their teammates with them. Also notice how he said would. Meaning it hasn't happened yet." She looked around at the general confusion and rolled her eyes. Then she raised her voice deliberately a bit. "That can only mean that the first punches were supposed to convey a message from one of the other rooms," she said loud enough so everyone could hear. Their fussing was getting unbearable. "And since whatever they're trying to tell the other rooms has to be completely impossible to misunderstand, that can only mean everyone not in their room is supposed to answer the fifty points question." She rolled her eyes at the numerous oh-faces looking at her in amazement and sudden understanding.

"And what about the other vibrations?" Kiba asked. "There were six of them, what's that supposed to mean?"

"That means someone is trying to sabotage someone else's attempt of letting us all pass," she speculated. "Or is just a very bad loser. Probably both." And with that, she got to work on the third question on her exam, an incredibly simple exercise of calculating the angle in which a shuriken had to be thrown from a tree to hit the designated target from behind. Academy stuff, really.

 

Just as the time had passed, Shikamaru's face greeted them on the screen again.

"Since you managed to make everyone pass, there will now be a fourth question," he announced, looking even more annoyed with all of them if that was possible.

"Look at him, being pissed at us for beating his totally biased exam," Kiba snarled. "Serves him right, having to make something up on the fly!"

Sakura doubted very much that Shikamaru hadn't planned for this scenario, but chose not to disclose that particular notion of hers.

"Everyone now turn your sheets around," Shikamaru instructed. "Following scenario: The team you're participating with in this exam is lured into an ambush. You have to leave behind one team member to escape and successfully complete your mission. Write the name of the team member you leave behind on the backside of your paper. If all three team give the same answer, you pass. You got five minutes."

That left them all in stunned silence.

Well. Something about the question was certainly off. The assumption a team member necessarily had to be left behind, for instance. When it came down to her team, Sakura assumed they'd just leave behind a clone of Naruto's. They were resilient enough to hold off attackers for a while. But of course, with instructions this clear it was too big a risk to assume her teammates would come up with the same solution. Well then...

If her team should ever come into this incredibly fabricated situation, which was highly unlikely, Naruto would absolutely volunteer to be the sacrifice. Well, Sakura herself would, too, but it was hard to argue against Naruto once he got going. And there'd be no way to talk him out of being the sacrifice, that much was clear. She could vividly see it in front of herself, how he'd just insist "me, me, me!" and probably even write that down... Which would get them disqualified since Sasuke and her would write his name, so that couldn't really be the answer... So was the answer to just write down "me" so everyone had the same response? That meant they'd all choose a different teammate, sure but, underneath the underneath and all tha -

Just when that thought crossed her mind, the picture of Kakashi in his hospital bed appeared before her. And then the memorial stone. And...

 

Oh, for fuck's sake.

 

She pushed the sheet away from her and had to suppress a laugh.

"Welcome to Konoha, indeed," she snorted.

"I guess that means I'm not supposed to write down that it's impossible for me to be ambushed," Karin in front of her concluded and glared at her. Sakura smirked, an expression she shared with Kiba and Tenten who had apparently come to the same conclusion as her.

"Tell you what," Sakura offered the other girl. "Turn around and I'll let you look at the answer."

Karin did indeed turn around, but from the look on her face, it was safe to assume not because she assumed Sakura could actually help her, but to kindly inform her that she was stupid and her team dynamics didn't apply to everyone. And then Karin actually did glance at Sakura's answer, and Sakura could basically see everything connecting in her mind, which resulted in a dramatic eye roll from the other girl.

"Are you guys for real?" Karin asked with disgust and turned around again.

 

***

 

Sakura met her team again in front of the building, under the right tree this time.

"I feel cheated," Naruto announced. "I thought this would be hard! And after all that studying... Just think what we could have done in that time!"

"Better safe than sorry," Sakura said, glad that this part was over with. Which was highly ironic, since in her exam experience, it was all downhill from here. "And for the record, I'd have been personally offended if you _hadn't_ been able to answer these questions yourself. But good thinking on your part."

"Eh, I was in the room with the idiot who tried crossing Neji and punched the walls," Naruto said lightly. "So after that, I wouldn't even have had a choice, you know, without Ino. Is she getting anything from us out of this?"

"Well, the original deal was that I'd give her the answers, but, uh, she didn't need them," Sakura remembered and grimaced. "So I guess she's gonna try and cash in on some sort of favor sooner or later. Oh well."

"All right, idiots, gather round and follow me!" A familiar voice announced, accompanied by a small explosion that had Anko appearing on a small stage in front of the building.

"So we all pass anyway?" Someone from the crowd asked. "That's not fair!"

"No, you don't," Shikamaru's voice now announced as he climbed onto the stage next to Anko. "She's just early. It happens."

"And your ass seems to be even slower with this shit than Ibiki used to be," Anko noted as she stepped back for Shikamaru to announce the results.

"Okay, everyone come over here," he called over the crowd. "And everyone who wrote down a name to my left, and those of you who didn't write anything to my right, please."

With a lot of mumbling and disbelieving glances exchanged between participants, they all managed to sort themselves. And even though she had doubted passing this part the least, Sakura was very glad that her teammates followed her to the same side without so much as talking about it first. Turns out there were some things you could always count on.

"Alright, so," Shikamaru continued. "Just from the way I made you sort yourselves now you can probably tell that everyone on my right passes and everyone on my left doesn't. Better luck next year, right side goes with Anko here, please."

"What the fuck?!" An indignant yell sounded from the left side, apparently from a very grumpy looking Suna shinobi. "What's that supposed to mean, we all wrote down the same name, how do we not pass?"

"You do _not_ pass because you just sacrificed a teammate, dumbass," Anko kindly informed him. "What do you think those are for, meat shields and food when times get tough?"

"Ew," Naruto muttered. "Just for the record, I'd never eat you guys, okay?"

"I'm deeply touched," Sakura assured him over Sasuke's snort.

"If times get tough, we'll eat your toads," he informed Naruto, who made indignant sounds at that while Anko kept yelling at the Suna guy. "They're the only edible thing we can summon."

"No, I'm pretty sure snakes are edible, too," Sakura mused. "Probably even more than toads, since their meals are more nutritious..."

"Maybe," Sasuke admitted. "They'd just eat you first."

"Not part of the equation," Sakura answered. "Just like leaving behind a clone wasn't, even though that would be the most practical solution."

"Yeah, but that would have gone against the, uh, spirit of the question," Naruto said, and smirked at the Suna guy still getting chewed out. "I mean, this is Konoha, we don't do stuff like that here."

"No kidding," Sakura agreed, as Anko was finally done yelling at people and went off towards the forest of death without so much as asking people to follow her again. Good thing they knew the way.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes I just wrote 9k about the boring written exam part, which was absolutely ripped off from the Anime episodes (around 390ies of the Shippuuden anime) that had a flashback chuunin exam arc. I liked the concept, bite me, even if it does favor Ino very deliberately (the episode has Temari sort of pointing that out to Shikamaru even, and he says it doesn't matter. U-huh.) and also, especially in the episode, assumes a lot of people can't do basic math. And then the last question had you wonder whether it wasn't actually Kakashi who came up with this stuff, and you also had to leave the team mate you chose behind in the exam room, which is just too obvious a tip off for my taste. When I first planned this, before the episodes aired, my original idea was a total rehash of the last exams with 10th questions tailored to basically the same message, with the scenario that a building was on fire, the mission was to retrieve a scroll from that building, but to do that, you had to leave your team behind, since, you know, that's thematic resonance after what we spent the last 19 chapters with. 
> 
> Holy shit this is chapter 20. 
> 
> In other news, since everyone enjoyed talking about this so much - hah. Naruto Gaiden is now officially an extended middle finger towards the haters claiming if a kid has glasses, she must have them because she's Karin's kid. Thank you for that, Kishimoto, and can I just take the time to laugh at all the gullible fools on the wiki that had changed the family relations to Karin being Sarada's biological mother after that totally legit DNA test? Y'all need to look up the meaning of a Red Herring. And common soap opera tropes. And maybe even author backlash. Ahem. Yeah. 
> 
> Also, I'm having a bit of an identity crisis because the phrase "There is such a thing as friendship between women" was uttered in the canon material, by Karin, about Sakura, before they're even remotely in that area in my own writing. This... Was definitely unexpected.
> 
> Chapters might be slower after this again, I should be studying for exams now. Like, my own. And the next chapter will prooobably make or break this entire fanfiction, because... Things happen. That go beyond adaptation of the source material. Beware.


	21. Uninvited

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The second part of the exam kicks off. And not in a good way.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so, so, so, so, SO, so, so so sorry this took so long. Real life obligations and really ugly bouts of depression happened. It should get better soon.
> 
> To be honest, what I'm posting here has been done for months, but my original plan was to go on for longer, but I just realized that I could never wrap this up in under 15k words, and while I am way more relaxed about chapter length than I was when I started writing 10 years ago (when a chapter with more than 3k was considered just a bit too long), I'll probably take some time to get there, and figured that this worked as a chapter on its own. 
> 
> This is when the fanfiction starts featuring OCs. They don't hijack the story or take over or anything, but they're there. Be warned.

 

"I can't believe our exam is so predictable," Naruto pointed out just after they had entered the Forest of Death for the second time in their lives. "This is literally the exact same thing as two years ago."

"Don't complain, at least we're prepared now," Sakura said, looking around. Foliage, trees, more trees, giant roots. Yeah, the exact same environment. "I assume you all have water bottles with you so we won't have to find a water source immediately?"

"You wrote me a list," Naruto answered. "I know you don't think much of my intellectual abilities, but I can definitely _read_."

"And we still might want to do that," Sasuke added. "I don't want to stay in this forest longer than I have to."

"So we just go to where most people will be headed at this point and then take out the first team we find?" Sakura deduced from his suggestion. "Alright, not a bad idea."

"We could split up and scout out this area first," Naruto suggested, with a shit-eating grin that only intensified when Sakura stared at him in horror and Sasuke in annoyance. "Hey, at least we won't have to come up with fancy passwords this time around!"

"Absolutely not," Sakura said fiercely. "Splitting up didn't work well for us the last time and with the amount of probably especially hostile enemies in this forest..."

"What do you mean with especially hostile?" Naruto asked. "The goal is to take another team out and take their scrolls. Everyone's hostile."

"Well, there are teams that might be reasoned with," Sakura clarified. "Ino's and Hinata's team come to mind, and maybe even Tenten's, though they'd be the most likely to take us on. Then there are teams who are here simply to compete, like hopefully all teams from Suna, and those from minor villages which may or may not have an actual agenda. Those are especially hostile."

"So you agree they're up to something," Sasuke picked up their earlier conversation again. Sakura rolled her eyes.

"Not exactly," she said. "But there are a lot of them here, which is suspicious, they all should be especially pissed at Konoha after everything, and the last time I thought you were just being paranoid, you were actually onto something, so I have decided to trust your instincts more." She bit her lips after admitting that. "Well, and it never hurts to be safe."

"What was your plan, then?" Sasuke asked, looking just a little bit pleased by her words. "You didn't want to immediately go for the water source."

"I'd just roam the forest for a bit, maybe get close to the center already," she answered, trying not to feel flattered that he wanted to hear her opinion. "I mean, sure, at this point nobody there will actually have the two scrolls required, but once we get our second scroll, we reduce the time of vulnerability to the other teams significantly with a shorter way to travel to the center and make ourselves less of a target. And yes, I also don't want to spend one moment longer than necessary here." And since they were being cordial, she turned towards Naruto. "What do you think? Or were you actually serious about splitting up?"

"Nah, that was to mess with you and lighten the mood," Naruto answered, looking both surprised and really happy to be asked for his opinion. "And I don't know, what you guys suggest does make a lot of sense, like, both approaches. And I mean, I do like a good fight, but because of what you guys said about Kusa ninjas and all that, I think we should just avoid causing a big scene or something, and go where there are targets but not too many of them. Dunno whether that's at the tower or the water source, though."

"The tower," Sakura immediately answered. Sasuke nodded. "Though depending on where we are, it's likely we're going to cross the river flowing through this forest before we get there, so we'll likely come across both places anyway. We just need to get moving towards the center."

 

And so they did just that, travelling in silence for about an hour or two without encountering either the water source or the tower. Or any other teams, for that matter. All these things were a bit strange and didn't help the uneasy feeling being in this forest caused Sakura to have regardless of other circumstances. They were travelling at full speed, and the forest wasn't this big, and... Aw, fuck.

"Hold on!" Sakura called out. Her teammates stopped in the trees before her, looking at her expectantly.

"Something wrong?" Naruto asked.

"How long have we been travelling?" Sakura asked back.

"Dunno, not that long, thirty minutes, maybe?" Naruto guessed.

"Shit," Sakura cursed. "Sasuke, what do you think?"

"Almost an hour," he answered. "Why?"

"My gut tells me it's been longer than that," she explained, looking around uneasy. "Sasuke, please scan the area with your headlights."

Scoffing at the term, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and looked around.

"Shit," he echoed her previous sentiment and immediately formed a release seal. Sakura did the same.

"Wait, what are you guys - " Naruto started asking, then seemed to connect the dots himself. "Oooooh," he made and also did the release sign.

To their credit, their environment didn't change much at all. That was good. Less good was the fact that the position of the sun told them it was at least late afternoon. Really not good was that one exam participant, according to his headband from Taki, was crouching in a tree in their general vicinity, and as soon as they had broken out of the very weak illusion, he let out a loud and shrill whistle that was answered in the surrounding trees. A lot. He even managed to dodge the kunai Sasuke immediately threw at him and dove out of the way, towards where Naruto was standing.

"High ground!" Sakura screeched, hoping the other two would get her tactical approach; they were likely to get swarmed by a large number of enemies, at least make them work for it. Naruto at least had no time to react to her suggestion, as he was too busy fighting off his first assailant, though swarming him was close to impossible anyway.

Sasuke at least shot up right next to her, looking incredibly pissed at how stupid they had been to walk right into this trap. Well, as far as genjutsus went, it was a pretty good one; probably area based, and it screwed around with their perception of time and direction, Sakura noted, as she broke through the foliage and spotted that they had made it only a few kilometers from their starting point before taking a very abrupt left turn instead of getting closer to the center. Apparently, the enemy had tried to lure them there and kept other enemies, be they shinobi or local wildlife, in check to lull them into a false sense of security.

A quick look at the sky also told her that they'd all been off regarding the time they'd spent trying to get to the center; the position of the sun suggested it had at least been three or four hours, so they had likely taken some detours they hadn't noticed either. It also was the only explanation as to how the other teams had been able to split up as efficiently as they did, judging from the numerous single enemies that now made their way to them. And then something hit her from behind and tackled her back towards the trees. Sakura was thrown down into a tree crown while one of the enemies held onto her back to drag her with them, and probably would have succeeded to smash her onto some large branch or even the ground further down, had she not been able to latch onto a tree branch using chakra in her hands, the same way she did with her feet when walking up a tree. This sudden maneuver caught her attacker by surprise, who lost his hold on her momentarily while the force built up from falling and suddenly stopping almost tore out Sakura's arms. He managed to hold onto her left foot, and wasted no time drawing a kunai and cutting her leg open; luckily too low to reach her calf and too high to cut the tendons of her foot, and so failed to do any significant damage. It still stung like hell. Sakura drew chakra towards her other foot and kicked against the hand her opponent was holding onto her with. He screamed out and she could hear a very nasty crunch where she had probably completely shattered the bone. And while the momentum wasn't easy on her shoulders and arms either while still latching onto the branch above her, the maneuver did get the guy off her leg and made him fall down and come down on another, far lower branch with a crunch even nastier than the one of his crushed hand. Well then. At least he was out of commission.

Unlike the kunoichi that was now launching herself at her hanging form, sword pointed forward. Sakura luckily saw her coming early enough to only swing to the side at just the right moment for the other girl to fly right past her, and to swing herself against the back of her newest assailant, feet first, making them both crash through the foliage until another branch caught their fall, Sakura using the body under her feet to launch herself up before the impact. That was another one down, judging by the ugly sound the kunoichi's spine made under her feet as she came down as well. And it only left her almost halfway to the ground, with no significant high ground to speak of given how freakishly tall the trees were, and no less than five new opponents on the exact branch she had come down on, who had apparently been about to attack Naruto, who was fighting about seven more enemy shinobi on the ground under her with the help of his clones.

At least now she was on some form of solid surface again; all that jumping and swinging around had made Sakura increasingly dizzy. But not too dizzy to draw a kunai just in time to block one of the Kusa ninjas' blades, and then ducking in an attempt to get the five of them to crash into each other as they all lunged at her simultaneously. It didn't quite work, but left her with a nice opening to take out a page of her first attacker's book and slice at her opponents' legs, rupturing at least one femoral artery on someone who had left their thighs completely uncovered by cloth of any variety. At least Sakura wore leggings there most of the time, made of sturdier material than they looked. When one of them tried to grab her, she used him as a backdrop to kick another one off their branch, though that wasn't likely to cause permanent injury on them as most ninjas, when not completely surprised or in a high amount of pain, actually knew how to fall and land without breaking anything. She then used her chakra-enhanced power to swing back her legs and come down hard on the ground, dragging the guy holding her up down with her before getting rid of him with a judo throw. The sword guy was back at her now, though, and the girl whose femoral artery she had cut open had tied up her leg and was attacking her, too. So at least they taught their genins first aid in the other villages, even if they didn't do healers there. But for some reason, she didn't exactly feel happy about that, since when she moved out of the lunge the sword guy tried to skewer her with, she accidentally got too close to that very kunoichi and was rewarded with a kunai in the back. Wait, no, not actually the back, more like the side. It still hurt like hell, though, and Sakura's immediate reaction was to elbow-check the other girl as hard as she could, then whipping around, gritting her teeth to ignore the sharp pain in her right side, and punching the girl in the face, hard enough to throw her back against the tree trunk, which she hit with a loud thunk and went down, unconscious.

  Sword guy was at it again, attempting to slice at her other side from behind, but Sakura pulled out her tanto and blocked the longer blade, turning around in the process. Using brute strenght, which was extremely unseemly in a sword fight and probably would have made Sasuke cringe indignantly, she pushed down the other guy's sword until the angle was too awkward for his wrist to handle and he dropped it, leaving him too distracted to anticipate the punch she threw with her left hand, which broke his jaw with yet another ugly crunch and also knocked him out cold. And then the fifth person, another kunoichi, came out of cover from behind him and knocked Sakura's legs away from under her with a sweeping kick. She hit the branch, hard, narrowly avoiding landing on the Kunai still stuck in her side and driving it in deeper, while the other girl lifted her own sword to bring it down on her. And then her opponent froze.

Literally.

A thick coating of ice started growing from her skin, spreading out within seconds until it was encasing her entire body, her face frozen in horror. Also literally. All around them, other ninjas from Kusa and Taki fell out of the trees, frozen as well, hit the ground and shattered. So did the girl who had just been attacking Sakura a split second after her comrades hit the floor, the shards of what had once been her body flying away as if she'd been hit by a wrecking ball, causing small cuts in Sakura's face.

She couldn't breathe; the cold and horror of what she had just witnessed had knocked the breath right out of her, freezing her in place, thankfully not literally, staring at what remained of what had been a person just a few seconds ago. Who could _do_ that? Just... Just freeze an entire person over and then _shatter_ them like they'd never been flesh and bone to begin with?

Sakura looked around frantically, trying to figure out where this attack had come from, but only spotting Naruto on the ground level, surrounded by ice shards that had been people too, but thankfully looking mostly unharmed and definitely not frozen.

"Guys?" He called out, sounding as if he was fighting the urge to vomit. "Are... Are you okay?"

Sakura jumped down from her branch, landing next to him.

"Yes," she assured him, not yelling, even though Naruto had most certainly alerted whoever else was in the vicinity. "You?"

"You have a kunai stuck in you," Naruto pointed out. "I'm just a bit banged up, maybe take care of yourself first. And where's Sasuke?"

"All clear," the very same answered, hitting the ground beside them at just that moment. "No more hostiles in our immediate environment."

"Except for the person who just _froze everyone_ ," Sakura pointed out, her voice shriller than it should have been.

"Not everyone," Sasuke argued, and pulled two sky scrolls from his pocket, handing each of them one. "The ones we knocked out weren't frozen. Each of you take one of these, I got two earth scrolls with me."

"Give Naruto one of those, instead," Sakura ordered him. "So the two of us have a complete set. Did you see who did this?" She waved her hand at the frozen remains of Naruto's foes without looking at them.

"That would be us," a strangely melodic voice answered, and a group of Kiri ninjas, two teams to be exact, emerged from the underbrush beside them, looking only slightly disheveled. "Sorry to scare you," the guy in the very middle continued. He not only had a voice that sounded a bit too old for his body, but also short purple hair and very bright eyes, which remained somehow unaffected by the consoling smile he was giving them. "And you should take care of that wound now, it looks quite bad." He pointed at where the kunai was still sticking out of Sakura's side. The horror of the shattering opponents had made her completely forget about the pain, which now abruptly came rushing back to her as Sasuke yanked the thing out of her, while at the same time walking past her and drawing his sword at the kiri ninjas.

"What do you want?" He asked them roughly, ignoring the way Sakura was cursing at him for what he'd just done while she now had to heal the wound using chakra. Had the kunai stayed inside, she might have been able to treat it without and withdraw the kunai gently, but no...

"Now, now, put that down, we don't mean _you_ any harm," the purple haired guy said, apparently speaking for all the others, though Sakura did notice how the two guys flanking him had had their hands their own swords as soon as Sasuke had drawn his. "We were ganged up on by these cretins, same as you."

"And you... Froze them?" Naruto asked, gaping at the strangers.

"Ah, no, not me," the guy declined. "That honor went to Yuki here." He stepped aside a bit and revealed a relatively short girl with bright blue hair. The two of them stuck out of the group, as the rest of them had black or brown hair and looked entirely unremarkable.

"If you're victims of this, whatever it is, too, then how did you find the other team from your village so fast?" Sakura asked suspiciously, finishing up the wound but leaving a scar. Healing it completely would be too much of a hassle, cost too much chakra, and she was combat ready as it were.

"Eiji is a sensor," the only talking guy explained and nodded at another guy behind him. "He felt what was going on, figured there'd be safety in numbers and went to find us. That's also how we found you."

"And you just randomly decided to help us out," Sakura concluded.

"Oh no," the guy answered, his eyes now narrowing a little as his smile turned into more of a smirk while he looked at her intently. "No, there is certainly nothing random about you, Haruno Sakura."

Okay. So he knew her name. That wasn't creepy at all.

"Alright then," she said, voice a little more high pitched than she would have liked. "Thank you for your help."

"Not that we needed it," Sasuke added, his usual diplomatic self.

"Who are you?" Naruto asked, apparently not getting Sakura's intent to get away from these people, fast. "And how do you know us?"

"How indeed, Uzumaki Naruto," the guy said, looking at him mockingly. "How could _anyone_ ever hear of your team outside the confines of Konoha, I wonder? What could the three of you possibly have done to... Earn a bit of a reputation, hm?" 

"I don't think reputations usually come with a way to know who we are just by sensing our chakra," Naruto argued. "But uh, whatever. Now who are you?"

"Yasume," he answered, managing to both sound melodic and polite and like he was hissing sharply at the same time. "No last name. At your service." He did a mocking bow in Sakura's general direction.

"Alright, Yasume-san," Sakura said carefully. "Thank you again. But I'm afraid we must be off now, it was a pleasure meeting you though." With that she started slowly backing away and pulling Naruto with her, though she made it a point to keep an eye on Yuki to maybe anticipate any of her freezing moves. Whether that would actually help her avoiding those was a different matter entirely.

"Well, that's quite unfortunate," Yasume called after her. "Rumor has it you are many things, Haruno Sakura, and stupid isn't supposed to be one of them."

Don't take the bait, Sakura told herself. Do not take the bait. You do not want to know.

"Hey, what's that supposed to mean?" Naruto took the bait in her stead. "Sakura-chan is, like, the second most smartest person I know, coming right after a guy with an IQ of 200, and that's cheating, so you take that back!"

"Naruto, let's just go," Sakura hissed and tried to pull him along once more.

"What I mean is that we are in a very large forest, filled to the brim with imbeciles who got it in their head to avenge _Oto_ , which wasn't even a real village, by taking out shinobi from greater villages in general and the three of you in particular," Yasume explained loudly. "We are as much in danger as you are, and have the advantage of numbers on our side, and we offer you aid. Walking away from that, especially after how you were almost overcome just now, doesn't quite seem like the wisest course of action, does it?"

While Sakura could indeed see the reason in what the other guy was saying, the way in which he said it made her skin crawl and gave her the urge to get as far away as possible as fast as she could.

"We didn't need your help," Sasuke now got involved in the conversation again too. "Our _reputation_ should have told you as much."

"You may not," Yasume agreed. "But can the other people from your village say the same?"

"Everyone we care about has someone on the team with abilities to find us, if necessary," Sakura said calmly. "I do think they'll manage."

"If they can still use them after the guys from the smaller villages are done with them," another guy from the group, standing next to Yasume, now got involved in the conversation for the first time. His voice was a lot less creepy than Yasume's, and in general he looked really laid back and had something of a comforting aura about him. "I mean, sensate abilities are great and all, but they don't help _you_ any in telling whether your friends are in trouble, do they?"

Sakura could almost hear Naruto swallow at that. It wasn't a bad concern, of course, but... Ugh. Now it got into her head as well.

"I can handle this just fine, thank you," Yasume snarled at the other guy. Sakura saw the other two guys and a girl with long, brown hair wince at his tone, yet Yuki and the guy talking to them seemed completely unfazed. She wasn't sure which was more unnerving.

"Oh, yeah, I can tell," the other guy retorted, causing the brown-haired girl to gasp. "Especially saying you're going to _handle_ stuff is so going to make them trust us, bravo."

"Just tell us what you want," Sakura interjected before this could turn into all-out bickering. Or... Something worse, as most members of the Kiri group seemed to fear.

"An alliance," Yasume answered before his companion could, but was interrupted before he could elaborate further.

"Yasume-sama," the guy who had been introduced to them as Eiji the sensor said just loud enough for Team 7 to hear from where they were standing. "They're regrouping and preparing an attack. The target is a team from Konoha, not far from here."

"What team?" Naruto asked immediately. The sensor gave him an irritated look, then looked at Yasume questioningly, who just shrugged.

"A team from Konoha," Eiji then repeated. "Three people. Two with somewhat similar chakra, the other not so much. That's all I can tell you."

"Seems like Karin really _is_ special," Naruto muttered, looking stressed. "If that's all he can tell."

"More like all he wants to tell us," Sakura muttered back, then raised her voice again. "And what would that alliance look like? How long would it last?"

"As long as it's convenient for both sides," Yasume answered the latter question.

"There you go, being creepy again," the other guy chided him, getting another glare from Yasume and shocked looks from the other Kiri ninjas. "What he means is that we stick together in this forest," he then addressed Team 7 again. "I mean, sure, you've seen the ice thing Yuki can do. It's amazing and deadly, but she has to recover for a long time after using it, especially after using it on so many people at once. The rest of us? Not so great in combat, especially when outnumbered. Sure, we're six and you're three and we could probably threaten you with Yuki so you'll help us. She's not someone you want on the other side. But, you know, we all have the scrolls we need, why make more enemies in this forest than necessary?"

"And you'll help us find other teams from our village?" Naruto asked, too concerned now to be wary.

"Yes," Yasume answered that. "If that's what it takes. We might even do it before the maggots are done with them if you agree."

"Still awfully altruistic," Sakura remarked, but she could already tell there was no way to steer Naruto away from this now.

"Well, let's just say if this should develop into a long-lasting friendship beyond this forest or exam, that might be quite beneficial for both sides, wouldn't you agree?" Yasume said, apparently trying to sound more approachable, and smiled at her again. Which did nothing to reassure her.

"They're closing in," Eiji chimed in again, in what seemed just a bit too convenient in timing to be a coincidence.

"Sakura-chan," Naruto urged her. "Don't we kind of owe all the others a rescue? I mean, from what you told us happened while we were knocked out last time..."

"I can't believe you're falling for this," Sasuke hissed at him. "They're playing us. There's no way this alliance is going to benefit us."

"Funny," Naruto hissed back. "I'm pretty sure you would have said the same about Gaara and his people back in the day, and the alliance with them has helped us plenty."

"After you beat Gaara to a pulp and kind of forced your friendship on him," Sasuke reminded him, still hissing. "And only your close friendship and convenience for both parties holds it together. I say this is too risky."

"Well, that guy is creepy," Naruto assented. "But he sure does seem interested in, uh, a _close friendship_." He cleared his throat. "Just not with me, that is."

"All the more reason to just leave," Sasuke argued, glaring at Sakura for good measure.

"Are you saying Sakura isn't likable enough for people to want to ally with her?" Naruto asked for clarification. Sasuke stared at him too indignant to answer for a few moments.

"If we turn them down, we pass up the opportunity to help the others," Sakura tried to bring this discussion back on a rational level. "I'm sure Team 8 and Team Gai can handle themselves just fine, but Ino and Chouji are lacking Shikamaru to balance out their techniques and Karin is not a combatant. And we're kind of to blame for their situation in more ways than one." She bit her lips. "Also, if we turn them down, they might just stalk us until that girl recovers enough to freeze us solid and shatter us like the others."

"They might still do that," Sasuke pointed out. "Allying with them just means they have to be less sneaky about it."

"Less sneaky means easier to stop," Naruto claimed. "It's not like we'll just pretend they aren't there or whatever. Especially once we get the others and even out the numbers."

"I'm honestly more concerned what this might mean after the exam," Sakura mentioned. "I mean, we don't know who these people are in their village, really. They might just be bluffing and not actually have the power to make any allegiances, or they might be really important."

"The purple guy sure thinks he's important," Naruto noted, wrinkling his nose. "And the others seem to buy it."

"My point exactly," Sakura agreed.

"But is that really worth abandoning Ino and her team?" Naruto asked her. "They're probably getting their asses kicked while we're talking!"

"They knew that was a possibility when they entered," Sasuke scoffed. "They don't hand out the consent forms just to make people quit."

"But their odds are significantly worse than usual," Sakura reminded him, getting increasingly nervous. They _were_ running out of time. "And in a way, that's our fault. We got the mob enraged by getting you out of Oto, and uh, causing collateral damage."

"Which I didn't ask for," Sasuke reminded them. Sakura and Naruto rolled their eyes.

"You actually kinda did," Naruto then claimed. "By running away in the first place, I mean. How long did you think we'd let that last?"

"And beside the fact that you have since strongly benefitted from returning here," Sakura added before Sasuke could argue, "Taking Karin with us and having her enroll as a Genin in Konoha _was_ your idea. So you did actively help in making their chances worse. Not to mention that we owe them, since none of us would be here if they hadn't helped me in time."

"You were beaten into a bloody mess when they decided to intervene," Sasuke reminded her. "Hell, they let Lee be knocked out before they bothered to help at all."

"But they did help," Sakura repeated her argument. "And considering how long we've been talking, we're probably going to find them in a similar state at this point, so there goes the moral high ground."

"We'll do it!" Naruto then declared, loudly, and in the general direction of the Kiri guys. "We don't really trust you and only agree to stuff you tell us about first, but we'll team up with you for this part of the exam if you get us to our friends in time to help them. And also the deal is off once any of you try some creepy shit, like freezing us or something."

"And your team agrees to that?" Yasume asked, looking directly at Sakura. She glanced at Sasuke, who just rolled his eyes.

"The terms sound fair," she then said. "Especially the part about anything going beyond this forest depending on prior negotiation _after_ we successfully helped our friends."

"What she said," Naruto agreed, more forcefully than he usually did. "Can we go now?"

"Well, if we don't, I'm afraid helping your friends will become a bit more difficult," Yasume said, in a strangely celebratory tone, before he gestured for his posse to get going.

"You'll lead," Sasuke grimly instructed the sensor. "We'll stay behind all of you at all times." He glared at Naruto and Sakura for good measure. "And for the record, I still think this is a horrible idea."

"It's good that nobody cares about what you think, then," Yasume pointed out sharply before following the rest of his group into the trees. Naruto snorted audibly, and even Sakura couldn't help but smile at the way Sasuke glared daggers at the other guy for that comment in particular.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I solemnly swear I am up to no love triangle.


End file.
